Product ID code question/internal versus sticker

This is for a parochial school and they deal with approved vendors. At local level, the primary support comes from myself and my wife. She works there and I just help out where I can. These Lenovo netbooks were ordered through CDW-G who specializes in products for government, schools, etc. and it was upon their recommendation that the netbooks be upgraded to XP Pro. They won't do that for us but will provide the licensed media. What they sent, however, was a volume licensed full (not upgrade) version of XP Pro but did not provide the product ID code. It's my understanding that this version will not perform an upgrade to an existing XP Home installation. I'd need to do such from scratch. I have requested from them, if such exists, a volume licensed upgrade version that will preserve the pre-installed software and utilities.

What I'm wanting to do is to simplify the entire process without losing the ability to restore any of the netbooks to their original state or their fully configured state as well as to be able to burn a single image created from one netbook that can be restored to the rest without risk of running afoul of MS rules. In theory, this should be simple. I do this with their desktops already but, with these, I am doing full installations on a bare hard drive. There is no sticker to be concerned with. The PID mismatch that I'm noticing has brought on this question though, perhaps, it's nothing to be concerned about. Thanks

Always with a support contact. Sadly there are those that sell volume licenses and don't do their job. In fact the last 10 volume license copies I encountered were outright frauds.

"volume licensed upgrade version that will preserve the pre-installed software and utilities."

You can try but you would be off the reservation or put another way, not a supported install method.

You can call (800) 426-9400, Monday through Friday, 6:00 A.M.? 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time to speak directly to a Microsoft Customer Service agent about the program options best suited to meet your needs.

Volume Licensing is expensive. Unless they are a pirate. You should be getting some stellar support.
Bob

CDW-G is the government/educational extension of CDW who is a well known and reputable vendor. The purchase of the netbooks by the school system comes with a sales support person who is responsible for filling and tracking the order. They are vendors for the volume licensed software media. The media and volume license keys are sent separately. In the past, the school has also received a paper certificate indicating the number of licenses purchased. This is their proof of legitimacy should the software police knock on the door. But CDW-G won't provide installation or other support for these products. As you said, MS would be the contact for support for their own products with this type of licensing. But, it's my understanding that an upgrade copy of XP Pro will copy right over XP Home and upgrade the OS without harming the installation of other (XP compatible) software. You seem to indicate otherwise. I will need to check on this. As well, we were told that the reason for receiving the full version of XP is because MS is now only providing XP as a Vista downgrade. It remains to be seen whether an equivalent XP upgrade version can even be obtained. If not, we get to start from scratch. Personally, I'm not certain why the XP Pro upgrade was recommended. I'd think Home would be adequate. Thanks again for taking time to reply.

No such product as XP Pro Volume License (Upgrade).

If you would be so kind (this is an all volunteer forum) to help me find this product?
Bob

I've turned this back to the CDW-G representative handling the order as I don't think the full version is going to (seamlessly) want to do an upgrade. I found this while searching for a proper MS product.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/highlights/osbits.mspx

It seems to suggest that a volume license upgrade might exist as MS has changed the product to prevent it's possible use to do full installations. Maybe I'm misreading.

That is yet another fine example of the maze you are in. As you can tell this version is an upgrade but should fail to meet many person's needs.

The VL you noted at the top appeared to be the normal one. And the issue of the key vanished when you move to volume licensing so we can stop talking about that instantly. The key is now the VL key. It is that simple.

Cloning, imaging is a non-issue with the VL system. You are allowed to do that.

-> However you are trying to preserve the old installed system. This is rarely done in a VL situation and flies in the face of why most org's go down this road. Here's why most move to imaging and standard images. The mis-mosh every PC has a different configuration can't be supported by a small staff.
Bob

I always make an image of the entire drive prior to making the first change of any type. It's always possible that a reason may come to return to this state. While not imperative, I believe it to be important. Obviously I don't want to make 30 such images. Now, if the volume license upgrade process can work like the retail purchased single license upgrade, this should preserve the pre-installed software for which would not be recoverable if a fresh installation of XP Pro was informed. Most of this will consist of utilities and not useful applications. As well, the drivers should remain intact but I will also copy the drivers folder and burn it to CD...as well as search the Lenovo site for updated versions of them. What I suspect will happen once the upgrade is performed is that the recovery partition will become useless. Full images and cloning will be the only backup method that will work. This netbooks will not be used for longer term storage of student created documents. These are kept on a NAS drive and that data backed up. The idea here is to not have 30 fully unique devices that each require their own backup method. Failed systems should result in no or minimal loss of data.

I believe it's coming clear that a single image of the initial full configuration that can be used to clone all the drives is going to work on these just as it has done with the desktop installations I've done there. It was the changing key code issue that added confusion to the process. Better safe than sorry. thanks again

Too much software locks onto the machine. Let's take Office for example.

Unless you move to Volume Licensing you would have a custom image per machine to preserve that software.

-> This is why the Upgrade path is unlikely to be the right choice. Too much software has the same activation system that makes what you are trying fail right out of the gate.

Then again you could just try a few.
Bob

Kaspersky AV, and a few educational titles that will be installed. I don't see what's DOA as long as a proper sequence is followed and appropriately licensed media is used. I've done this more than once with their desktops. Are you saying it won't work with the netbooks? I'm about to find out within the next few days. I have until the end of August to get these ready. I can do a fresh installation on one PC and clone the rest if needed but 30 scratch builds is another issue.

Mandate that all the "supported" PCs be identical make, model right down to the last screw. Otherwise you as the IT staffer disavow them. If you have just 30 machines did VL save any money? It looks iffy when you see less than 100 machines.
Bob

As I mentioned, I'd have been happy to leave it at XP Home for these netbooks. The purchasing decision isn't mine nor is the money. My (unpaid) job is to get these configured and working for the students as well as come up with a backup/recovery plan that's not cumbersome. The choice of netbooks over full sized laptops does come with OS limitations. You buy and use what's out there on the shelf. As you know, one doesn't see a lot of custom configurations offered with these. You don't want it their way, you change it yourself. BTW, I have the VL XP Pro upgrade media in hand now. It's PN E85-05394. It does exist. We're awaiting the key code. I'll report success or failure...whichever it is. Thanks for the advice.

All the headaches I dreamed up are fading fast. But the fun is just beginning so let's get you some nice free disk image or clone tools.

Read http://lifehacker.com/5303067/five-best-free-system-restore-tools

These sites and information, while they don't pertain to my current needs, may provide something I could use later. I've quite well aware of the larger differences between Home and Pro as I have both versions in my home. I've worked far more with Pro. These netbooks, however, will only be used by students set up with limited accounts and only these will display on the welcome screen. I've worked with a variety of licenses though I'd not be prepared to give a presentation on them.

I read through dozens of threads here regularly just to gather information that may be helpful to me in my volunteer support role. I'm not, however, a trained IT professional....just keeping one step ahead of what I'll be asked to do next.