windows xp licence - Tech Support Forums

c44151 · January 2nd, 2004, 12:28 AM

just thinking. ok I found this device wich allows you to swap hard drives without opening up you pc. meaning I can have one hard drive per person if I wanted or diffrent o/s if needed.just wondering how this would work. ok one pc weel say 3 seperate hard drive(1 per person) but each hard drive act like there own computer.like you cary this thing around with you, you want to go on the pc you incert this drive and away you go(so if 1 person has a virus on there hard drive only there hard drive gets affected) but you have to remove it if someone else goes on and they insert theres.Since I think windows licence is for 1 pc only would this qualify as 1 pc or 3 pc's.
the device is this
http://www.compusmart.com/product.as...ives%7COptions
also if they are diffrent hard drives like on is western digital the other is a maxtor will any of this be affected.
Now this is just curiosity.

rpertusio · January 2nd, 2004, 12:34 AM

Hrm...
after reading and re-reading it.. it sounds legit to have 1 licence for all 3 users ONLY IF they dont put their drive into another computer. (which would fail anyway because windows xp would sense new hardware and know it was on a diff computer)

It seems legit because only one person can use the computer/OS at a time. It would be like creating 3 profiles on a computer, and splitting the 3 profiles across 3 drives. All are valid users... but cannot be running at the same time.

that's just my take. Microsoft could see differently for a reason I haven't thought of.

- rp

troddy · January 2nd, 2004, 12:36 AM

knowing microsoft ... probably 3

**EvilRick** · January 2nd, 2004, 12:39 AM

It's just one PC w/ 3 HDD's. Now if you had 3 different PC's, that'd be different. There's no way to use all 3 licenses simultaneously, so you're not breaking the law or the EULA.

Gait_Keeper · January 2nd, 2004, 01:04 AM

I didn't know winXP supported hot swapping

or is this different than hot swapping, cold swapping??? you know turn the PC off change drives reboot,

rpertusio · January 2nd, 2004, 01:13 AM

This would be cold-swapping, Gait_Keeper.

However, to answer your question (as best I can...) IDE drives are NOT hot-swappable.

most SCSI and SATA have the ability to hot swap, at least by their specification.

- rp

Gait_Keeper · January 2nd, 2004, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rpertusio
This would be cold-swapping, Gait_Keeper.

However, to answer your question (as best I can...) IDE drives are NOT hot-swappable.

most SCSI and SATA have the ability to hot swap, at least by their specification.

- rp

Thanx..........

this does sound like a loop hole in the EULA, "one machine"

ragtop · January 2nd, 2004, 01:25 AM

Not sure of the legal issues - but the bottom line is that you'd have to activate WIN XP for each of the three hard drives. No way MS is going to let you activate the same copy three times.

HeadBand · January 2nd, 2004, 01:36 AM

i think they would have to...what about formatting

you might have to call ms though

rpertusio · January 2nd, 2004, 02:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ragtop
No way MS is going to let you activate the same copy three times.

It is the same hardware for all 3 installations... MS would have a problem if you tried to activate 3 installations for 3 different hardware setups (different computers.)

- rp