XP home wont activate

[makenx19]

hello, i have recently upgraded my computer, and had to reinstall windows after wiping my hard drive (new mobo). I got the usual activate Xp icon popping up so i followed the instuctions to activate and then it siad everything was fine, however the little time notification wouldnt go away. every time i went to activate windows it said that it was already activated and said to exit. I tired everything on the microsoft webiste and nothing worked. finally the deadline passed and i cant log in because once the "you must activate windows before logging on" prpmt comes on and i click it , it gives me the same " Xp is already activated screen again and i have no other options. if their is anyone who knows how i may be able to log back into windows without wiping my hard drive again (have very important essays on the drive) please let me know
thank you for your time,
Tony

[Bio-Hazard]

You can try going into the safe mode, I don't know if it would work though.
Another way is to boot with a floppy or CD and pull your data off that way and then reinstall.
You could also try a repair install of windows over your current one, works sometimes and sometimes not.

[liqnit]

What veriosn is the OS - SP2 \ SP1?
Have you tried calling microsoft support?

look in MSConfig.exe - Startup page for a line running
wpabaln.exe - the
Activation 'Balloon reminder'. Sometimes the
activation process ends
without removing the entry

hope it will work

[makenx19]

its service pack 2 and i tried calling microsoft and got a lady (for whom english was not her first language took 20 minutes for info) and then was told that even though i have my cd key and the original box with papers( and a receipt) that because i dont have the CD in front of me ( was chewed up by my last CD-RW, curse you optorite) that she cant link me to the product activation help line. maybe its my fault but this sure sucks right now. Any more comments or help would be much appreciated -Tony

[dumdum]

You could only activate windows home sp2 2 or 3 times. Ask MS for a new key.

[werty316]

No offence but this topic is from over a year ago. Check the date before replying.

[Xero (1)ne]

You can reactivate XP as many times as you want as long as it's not used by more than two cores at once. It says so in the EULA.