NO, I don't believe you will have that problem with an external HD. MS just
wants to make certain you are not using your copy of VISTA on more than one
computer. When you change certain hardware it seems to think it's a
different computer. We can thank all the pirates of eariler Windows OS's for
this re-activation scheme.

Such strict internal hardware control will simply boost the sales in
external devices. Be that as it may, having an external hard drive is a MUST
to avoid an internal hard drive failure, and they are affordable these days.
Get one!

It seems to me it would be better if motherboard makers gave each board a
unique identification number which Vista could then use to detect a change in
motherboard - "the computer." Microsoft could work with them about this to
try to make it happen. That way all of us do-it-yourselfers could add or
change all other hardware without going through re-activation, which has to
cost MS a lot for those tech people.

"Garry" wrote:

> I added my old hard drive to my Windows Vista computer. This caused Vista to
> un-activate itself. I had to call in to reactivate it.
> That being said, my question is, if i install an external SATA hard drive
> for backup and use multiple hard drives for the purpose of backing up my
> system, am I going to have to reactivate Vista each time?
> I don't mind reactivating so much but it won't reactivate over the web and
> by phone you must do the automated activation and then do it over again with
> a live tech.
>