Recipe 19.12. Backing up and Restoring Activation Data

Problem

You need to reinstall Windows and want to back up your activation data to avoid repeating the process; you then need to restore that data once your system is refreshed.

Solution

After activation, Microsoft stores associated data in the files wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak in the folder %systemroot%\system32. You can back up these files to a diskette or other media for storage while you're performing the reinstall.

Once your system is back up and running, you can restore the activation data by starting Windows XP in safe made and opening a command line to the %systemroot%\system32 folder. Then, rename the new wpa.dbl to wpa.none and wpa.bak, if it exists, to wpabak.none. Finally, copy your backed-up wpa.dbl and wpb.bak files to the %systemroot%/system32 folder, and then reboot.

Discussion

This procedure will work only if you are reinstalling XP onto the same exact physical hardware. If you try to restore the activation data onto a system with hardware that is significantly different than the original system from which the activation data was created, the process may fail. Indeed, it may fail on systems with the exact make and model of hardware, since activation takes into account the MAC address of the machine's network card an attribute unique to every machine.

See Also

MS KB 302740, "Running Repair on Windows XP Requires the User to Re-Activate the Product," and MS KB 305056, "Windows XP Prompts You to Re-activate After You Restore Your Computer"