Thinkpads Forum

I want some legal explanation - I am selling my machine. I have replaced original HDD with some other, I have copied the recovery partition and fixed mbr. It works fine now, but I am a bit concerned about legal consequences that arise for purchaser. 1st of all I no longer have invoice/ purchase proof. Of course license sticker is in place (I have never been asked to enter the key on it though - SLIC?). So I want to get to know - can the purchasing person use the operating system legally regardless of hardware configuration change I mentioned? I have heard that motherboard replacement voids OEM license, but nothing about HDD.

The COA on the bottom of the laptop will work for the buyer. He or she will need Lenovo recovery discs to use it though...or an OEM install DVD.

Thank you for reply. Now I am confused. How come I did not get these CDs on purchase?

With the original drive and OS, you have an option to burn a recovery set

I know. The whole question is whether the person who purchases laptop from me can legally use the recovery partition and the operating system the computer was shipped to me with, if I replaced HDD (and no longer have that), but I moved the recovery partition to the new HDD. I understand from Harryc's post that on purchase of NEW recovery set from Lenovo tnings are OK with the WinXP sticker on the bottom of my laptop, but without repurchase of that - the person cannot use recovery partition but can use system. I always knew M$ licensing is tricky, now I need to understand it in order to avoid exposing 3rd party to legal risks and I am stucked ...

Legally, whatever laptop gets the hard drive with the recovery partition, you should be using that COA serial # and not your old one. The COA number stays with the laptop. You can't 'keep it'. You'd activate your old build with the new COA#. With that said, you could peel the COA label off and go about your business. If somebody wants to buy a laptop without an OS and no COA then so be it. You need to be up front about it though.

The thing is like that: I want to sell my laptop WITH sticker and SYSTEM, the trick is I replaced HDD, moved recovery partition to the HDD in my laptop, deleted recovery from old HDD and sold it. Now I am afraid whether the purchasing person will be able to legally use the system with the laptop (sticker is in place), despite recovery partition was moved. Had I had CDs there'd be no problem, but when I purchased T60 the CDs were no longer shipped with laptop (since 2006 it is just recovery partition). This arises questions what parts are now binding for OEM (system board for sure). Is the HDD such a part now - that's my question.

Regarding sticker and WinXP key on it - I was never asked to enter it, neither before HDD replacing nor recovering system from partition moved to new one. So I guess the key is in SLIC in BIOS - or is it on recovery partition? It is just side-topic, since if I can assure purchaser there's no legal issue involved - the problem will be solved for me.

My opinion is what I already stated, so yes the buyer can and most likely will use the COA# on the bottom of the laptop unless they install a retail copy of the OS. When you say "moved recovery partition to the HDD in my laptop", then you should be using the COA on your laptop. Am I missing something? I don't know what 'binding for OEM' means. If you re-activate the build because of a hardware change you use the same COA# as the one on the bottom of your laptop. .

My opinion is what I already stated, so yes the buyer can and most likely will use the COA# on the bottom of the laptop unless they install a retail copy of the OS. When you say "moved recovery partition to the HDD in my laptop", then you should be using the COA on your laptop. Am I missing something?

No, you're not missing anything. That removes my doubts. Thank you!