OEM is OEM - it is tied to the machine it is installed on and that means the motherboard. Royalty OEM (DELL,HP etc) have a BIOS check in them so that activation is not required, but these are the technical details rather that the legal details. Just because a machine doesn't ask for activation doesn't mean it's not legally licensed. Certain numbers of changes on the system trigger a reactivation and the definition of a system on the MS website is the motherboard that comes with a machine. If you think about this from a customer support point of view it all makes sense as you can literally change everything except the motherboard and the machine is still a Dell or HP, but if the motherboard changes then all bets are off and so you need a new license. At the same time if the machine's motherboard fails and is under warranty then replacing it with an equivalent might require re-activation but is covered under the license.
As far as what you are trying to achieve then there are a number of issues. You can build your own machine, install Vista on it and office on it and then activate both. If you replace the hard drive and do a reinstall then you can do the same again. Activation will only detect the change in HDD, so you could have 10 drives and still not have problems activating - in theory at least! If you have corporate license then you can transfer the license between machines and at any one time you would only have one "machine" so a single license would seem to fit. Equally if you were to use a SPLA license then the machine would be used by a single user and so only a single license would been needed for both. This is a situation that does not fit the only oem/retail model and so the sales people at Microsoft will give a silly response. I know that with 4 years experience of being a Microsoft Licensing Sales Expert I would have no problems in recommending this sort of situation as being appropriate for a corporate license. One caveat would depend on the end users. If the drives are being isolated as they belong to different companies, then a ownership of the machines becomes an issue - and I would advise that each company supply its own license. If this is just work for clients then in the same way as you can install a number of virtual machines on a host for logistical reasons then this would seem to follow that logic. This is really a situation where you could probably get away with it without telling Microsoft, but really should be commended for bringing to their attention as a situation which requires further consideration. I'm sure most people here would agree that a corporate or retail license (not upgrade) would count as 'doing the right thing' and that you could get someone at Microsoft to agree with that for you. You will probably struggle to get it in writing. Hope this helps. Mike -----Original Message----- From: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 17 July 2008 21:27 To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: MSFT licensing: Multiple hard disks, single computer, single drive at once There are 2 types of OEM licenses. You are referring to a FULL OEM license. The OEM license installed by the manufacturer and is tied only to the BIOS of the machine, you can literally change everything but the motherboard and still be compliant. Tim -----Original Message----- From: E. Peeters [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 3:01 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: MSFT licensing: Multiple hard disks, single computer, single drive at once Afraid I'm not going to help, but an OEM license states that a system is the sum of: -a CPU; -a motherboard; -a power supply; -a hard drive. Not a lawyer, but my guess is, change one of the components above and you have a different system. -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 2:18 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: MSFT licensing: Multiple hard disks, single computer, single drive at once Hi everybody (Hi Dr. Nick!)... Scenario: One computer. Computer has a removable hard disk drive (like one of these: http://tinyurl.com/CRUDataPort3). Only one spot in the computer for the removable carrier, so only one hard disk at a time can be used. There will be several hard disks, each with its own installed instance of Windows and Office. But they will only be used with that one host PC, and only one at a time. (The disks contain data we are required to keep physically separated -- by an "air gap" -- at all times.) Question: Do I need a license seat for each hard disk? My take: Only one license per computer should be needed. It's all one computer. I won't ever be able to *use* more than one seat at a time. When it comes to OEM licenses, the license is part of the computer it is sold with. If I take the disk out of the PC and put it in a different PC, I need a license for that other PC. If that principle is applied uniformly, a license purchased with a computer, used with that computer, with multiple hard drives, is okay. Microsoft Sales verbally insists I need a license seat for each, and I cannot find a formal document stating otherwise. Does anyone have a URL or document title I can refer to that contradicts this? Or are we going to have to buy several seats of Vista and Office for this one PC? Retail box for Vista, too, since OS Volume Licenses are "Upgrade Only". I'm going to end up having to spend over $4000 on Vista and Office licenses on this one PC! -- Ben ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
