wcrouch :
I need to (re)activate a fully licensed Windows XP64 installation. But, the MS activation server seems to be off-line. What to do?
Why XP?
My company has some expensive special purpose HW with custom drivers that are critical for a long term project. There are no drivers available for any other version of Windows, and the company that wrote the current ones is no longer in business. The system is never used for browsing or such, so Internet security is not an issue. I just replaced a broken HD, cloned the contents from a recent backup to a new HD, replaced a dying CD reader, and it seems I tripped MS's activation threshold. Yes, I could go with the XP emulation offered under Win7. But, if I can just get the current WinXP re-activated quickly, that would be better. What I had, worked just fine for many years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. So, the question is "I know MS no longer supports XP re patches, updates, & such. But, do they provide a way to re-activate existing installations?".
Honestly OP; BLAH BLAH heard it before excuses. A Manager / Decision Maker / Stakeholder has to be told the TO BAD SORRY answer. You put off what you were supposed to invest in (can your company vehicles drives 100,000miles on the same tires? what happens when they reach 200,000 miles you keep using them? NO YOU REPLACE THEM) and you didn't and now you will have to pay 2-10x what you could have paid before.
You need to suck it up, hire a Business Systems Analyst to review this 'special purpose expensive HW' and find your solutions you will HAVE to suck up and buy into. Honestly the BSA will give you the same answers, if this 'critical' system shuts down tomorrow and there is no way to fix it, what impact does that have to your bottom line, is that less then replacing it? If not then as a COST SAVINGS it is time to retire the risk.
Secondly your totally fooling yourself "The system is never used for browsing or such, so Internet security is not an issue." You apparently never had a RISK ASSESSMENT done, because ANY Analyst would have provided to you Suxnet as a shining example of a HW that is expensive special purpose, was compromised and it never was used for browsing and such. In fact the hardware was under strict MILITARY control, with extreme level security and severe restricted access...... Nuclear Centrifuge hardware. Yet it was infected and taken down, so how LESS secure is yours in comparison to some simple OOPS by a worker? HIGH RISK.
And that addage " If it ain't broke, don't fix it." doesn't apply to depreciation items. As I noted a company vehicle depreciates overtime, and so does the bathroom piping in your building, the electrical wiring to a segment of your building now being repurposed for other uses, and so on. You and your Management need a wake up call to understand computers are as much a INFRASTRUCTURE item as the toilet, the parking lot, the machinists tools, electrical wiring, etc. And such needs to be CALCULATED in for depreciation, which XP is PAST THAT TIME PERIOD.
Think now your at 300,000 miles on your delivery truck and you keep saying If it ain't broke, don't fix it, well in comparison to your new HD, replaced a dying CD reader, you just replaced the Engine and Transmission in it again, and now you realize it is a LEAD Engine you still been using when LEAD gas is no longer sold, how will you get around it?
See this is where RIsk and Cost-Benefit analysis comes in, and someone (MANAGEMENT) needs to step up and make a well educated decision on the RISKS, COSTS and BENEFITS.
You are at a point now you either have a non-PRODUCTIVE piece of equipment or you have to deal with addressing the problem (it has to be replaced).
Oh BTW, do note: 4K drives are the norm now, and they require a UEFI motherboard to function, and only sold in the current SATA III format, which XP has no way of understanding nor the BIOS. So you can't just 'reformat it' it is embedded at the HW layer, and if your drives and such go down again, that also is a HW issue you can't get around (no one selling old drives).