Office activation & hard disk failure

[Svetlana]

I've got "Office XP Standard for Students and Teachers". With the computer I
first put it on, the hard disk has completely failed. It doesn't even detect
that the hard disk exists. Now I try to put it on another one, it keeps
telling me it's already been put on another computer before. Well... I guess
it has, I know that... but I still paid for it, and I can't use it. So what
do I do? I need to use Excel, and the reduced functionality version doesn't
let you do anything.

ps. I didn't want to contact the "toll free" number because I'm not sure
what "toll free" actually means outside the U. S. (I'm in the U. K.), and I
don't know how international numbers work anyhow (where on earth is the +
symbol on a phone?).

pps. I didn't want to contact Microsoft on their "two free requests" thingy,
because I've absolutely no way to tell how many requests they reckon I've
made before, no way to tell if I went over, whether they'd fail to answer or
just simply charge me anyway, and all-in-all it just sounds so dodgy that I
don't want to touch it with a 10-foot barge-pole. I'm not risking £35 for
something that aught to work properly in the first place, that's bleedin'
ridiculous.

ppps. Yes you guessed it I'm no tech-wizard or anything of the sort, and
neither do I pretend to be. I'm no dummy either, though. I didn't know my
hard drive was going to die (bad enough to begin with; but that's a different
issue) and all I want to do is to use the programs I purchased
fair-and-square.

 

[sfg]

If what you are saying is true then you should be able to activate it
online. More than the hard drive has to change for the activation system to
detect another computer installation. If this is still a problem do a
telephone activation - try to activate while not connected to a network.
You can talk to the Microsoft rep and should be able to convince them you
are legit - if you really are.

 

[sreeni243]

Hi

All you have to do is call the the microsoft activation department (if not
sure about number just contact the customer service division and they would
transfer you there ) and when you get to the activation department just tell
them that you are trying to reactivate the software as your old computer has
a hard disk crash and they will be able to handle things from there


Ps Before you reach the activation department please be sure that you have
the installation ID number with you. You could get this number by opening any
office program like excel etc and the click on help and then on activate the
product,there you get two options just select the one that says activate over
the phone and click on next .On the next page you will be asked to choose the
country that you are located and once you do that you see a long string of
numbers called as the installation ID number.

Do not worry about the support incidents that you have at microsoft as this
is not a technical issue

Hope this helps
Bye

 

[Svetlana]

thankyou sfg and sreeni243, i guess from your responses that it's safe to
call the number on the activation screen without worrying about mucho phone
costs.

i think i didn't make myself very clear before, sorry about that. when the
hard disk on my old machine failed, i (stupidly, in hindsight) got rid of the
whole computer. this is another computer i'm trying to put my programs onto.

i've got all the packaging and the product number written in there and all
the cds and stuff like that. i'll give the phone activation a try, now that
i know that i don't need to worry about the technical incidents and whatnot.

thanx again.

 

[sfg]

This is a problem - Microsoft has no way to know if you are telling the
truth about destroying the old computer. However, I have heard (and found
to be true) that after 6 months you can re-activate again on another
computer. So maybe if the last activiation is old they will beleive you.
Good luck.