I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop that's a few years old. I've just bought a new 320GB HDD for it, and am looking to rebuild it. I still have the OEM DVDs from Dell that Windows XP was installed with, but I'm concerned that it won't activate with that license key because the HDD serial number will be different.
Does Windows Product Activation care about the HDD serial number (and thus I have to buy a retail copy of Windows 7), or should I be okay?
Best Answer
There is a 99% chance it will activate over the Internet without a problem.
If it doesn't, it will give you a phone number to call Microsoft (in your locale), and you can explain what happened and they will help you activate it.
Here's a blurb on changing hardware and activation, from Microsoft's site under "Myths About Activation":