Activation Using Wrong Volume Licence CD/Locked Out/How to Access?

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Stuscotland - 13 May 2008 22:47 GMT

I re-installed XP Pro SP2 on a PC using one of our old Dell Volume Licence
CDs. Complete new image. Problem is, that was the wrong (old) CD and it
prompted me for product activation. It’s now past 30 days and I’m locked out
and unable to activate via Microsoft as I cannot prove we owned the licence!
We no longer have the product key on the side of the PC.

I would wipe it and start again with the correct CD which I now have, but
there is critical data on that PC. How do I gain access as I’m locked out?
Would using a bootable (correct) CD this time get me past current activation
issue?

Excuse the ignorance in advance; it’s a bit of a mess as a result of product
activation being expired.

Thanks

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Carey Frisch [MVP] - 14 May 2008 01:24 GMT

Windows XP Logs You Off When You Try to Activate the Product
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330136/en-us

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Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

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"...Diplomacy is the art of telling someone to go to hell, in such a way
that they look forward to the journey..."

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Stephen - 14 May 2008 15:13 GMT

You can actually do that in a couple of ways. 1) you can put the drive as a
slave to another computer so you can get the data, or 2) use a boot cd such
as Ultimate Boot Disk.

> I re-installed XP Pro SP2 on a PC using one of our old Dell Volume Licence
> CDs. Complete new image. Problem is, that was the wrong (old) CD and it
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Thanks

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