windows XP license trouble after disk enlargement

[roberto9911]

Hi
Thanks in advance for you kind help from Italy!
I have 2 virtual machines on 2 different PC (not connected with internet) with windows xp, as I need to use old important programs 32 bit.

From yesterday both machine are in trouble and I cannot enter in windows as i receive "this sotware must be registered/activated" and after " this spoftware is already registered/activated" as a loop...
Some days ago I enlarged the phisical disk on the virtual machine: after that I received again the "windows registration" request and I did it
But the machine continue to advice me to register/activate
Of course I'm talking about a legal Windows Xp license

So: 1) do you know if is possibile to recover the XP?
2) OR - do you know if i can access to the disk of the virtual box from outside , from my PC without starting the machien as it does not work?
Attached some images
1 - machine before it starts + first request of register/activate Windows copy - so I pressed YES
2- attivation with message "copy already activated" - so I pressed OK + - screen of user choice - and i press on the only one (cannot upload)
3- again regsistration request... and so on

Thansk so much

[multiOS]

AFAIK Microsoft's WindowsXP Activation Server has now been closed down and you can only activate XP via the automated Telephone Activation System or by direct call to the Microsoft Help Desk.

To extract user data, you could try mounting the XP.vdi file on your PC, or another working VM, providing the data isn't encrypted, or by using 7zip, or or a similar 'zip' utility, that can unpack .vdi files, but make sure you work on a copy of the .vdi file in case of problems.

[roberto9911]

Thanks multiOS,
expecially for the 7zip solution: I receovered all the files!!!

About licence you are righe but also the telephone does not work: so I found some trick with register, etc
Thnaks agai and best regards

[multiOS]

Thanks for reporting back. Glad you managed to get what you needed.

[mpack]

I have been resizing disks for a long time now, and I have to say that I don't recall that resizing a drive ever caused loss of activation of XP itself. Moving the cloned VDI to a new VM would definitely do it, but that is not what is described here.

On the other hand we have had scenarios reported where people have download a trial version of XP which they keep alive by save-stating and playing with the clock. Cloning the drive would involve losing the saved state.

[roberto9911]

Really sorry multiOS and mpack but I don't know how correctly "reporting back" your kind reply!

[scottgus1]

I believe that Mpack is saying, expanding the size of your VM's disk would not cause activation to break. Something else is going on that breaks activation.

Your problem description makes me think that your VM was very new, less than 30 days old while it was working. XP had a 30-day period for using it unactivated, then it would lock down and require activating before allowing you to use it further.

XP also had a signature for activation, built from the different pieces of hardware in the computer. If a card in the computer was changed, activation might break and require reactivation. Maybe you changed a network card or something else in the VM?

I need to use old important programs 32 bit.

Often, Windows 7 can run XP's programs. 7 performs well in Virtualbox, and I believe it still activates.