I have a Windows XP Pro CD, how often will I reformat my hardrive when needed?

Windows makes you revalidate your copy of windows xp every time the suspect you've installed it on a different computer.

What microsoft does is they have windows xp take an inventory of all of the hardware on your computer, they then convert this inventory into a number (how they do so is a company secret, so the exact method is unknown, but it is know that they use an hashing algorithm to do so). If your computer inventory changes too much after any given reboot, microsoft will make you revalidate your copy of windows xp. It isn't too big a deal, you call a 1-800 number, they ask a few simple questions, and then they give you a validation number. I've had to revalidate my copy of windows xp for doing something as simple as adding a hard drive and dvd drive, so it doesn't take much to trigger a revalidation. (Don't you love it when a company that you buy a product from treats you like a thief? And yet we keep coming back...)

However, you don't change the hardware in your system by reformatting your hard drive. So format away, you'll never have to revalidate.

Remember, you've paid for a copy of Windows XP, you have a legal right to use it regardless of any hardware changes you've made. You even have a legal right to remove XP from one computer and install it on another computer.

However, Windows Vista licensing is different, and you can loose your legal right to use Vista simply by upgrading your computer too much.

There are some cases where you can use the CD only 2-3 times with Genuine Windows XP still intact but more than that, then the CD will no longer work for you. Reformat your hard drive only when your computer is beginning to show symptoms of system crashes, error messages, and slow start-ups. At the moment, the first use has expired in installing your Windows XP and you could have only one last try or so to reformat your hard drive in the future.

If it's not a boot CD then this isn't going to work. To reformat the PC you are going to need a boot CD You can use any boot disk (Windows 98 etc) to get the system to boot then swap the disks over and format your PC and install Windows XP

You can install it on the same computer as many times as you want. You'll just have to call the 800 number to validate your copy. Just say you reformatted. It gets annoying though. But for how frequently should you reformat? If you don't have ish with your comp, then don't reformat. I use to reformat alot, but I just realized, I'm wasting my time with this.

normally you can only use you product key once and in some oem cases twice. unless you keep reinstalling every month before the 30 days is up for registration. but if your pulling it off, good luck!

you can install it many times on a single computer,just keep your cd-key