Please can you point me in the right direction for backup software that will enable me to restore a complete hard drive or incremental files without having to reactivate Windows. Bill Phillips
Acronis True Image 9.0 Home will do what you want, but for continuous backups, Centered Systems' Second Copy is also worth a look.
Unfortunately, it's not easy to tell whether using a backup will mean Windows XP has to be reactivated. If the hardware has not changed, I don't see why it should. Even if the hardware changes substantially, Microsoft allows XP Pro to be reactivated four times a year. There's an interesting account of how WPA (Windows Product Activation) works at www.licenturion.com .
