Re: [tlug] [Becoming OT] Re: problem with MBR

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Edward Middleton writes:
 > On 06/07/2010 01:07 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
 > > Jon Povey writes:
 > >  > fdisk /mbr cured it. I assume it wiped out a GUID written to the MBR to 
 > >  > identify the drive.. or somesuch.
 > > 
 > > ... You might void your
 > > license doing that with Vista or Seven.  I've heard that with Windows
 > > 7 if you "dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb" then swap the drives, the boot
 > > will fail with an unlicensed hardware error.  (This from a university
 > > technician who as far as I know doesn't hate Microsoft.)  Might be
 > > just FUD, but then turn about is fair play. ;-)
 > 
 > That is a result of Microsoft Product Activation.  Sounds more like your
 > technicians can't be bothered.

Unlikely, I've never noticed an aversion to necessary work down there
(as long as you give them a week's notice :-).  More likely I misheard.

But exactly what does "Microsoft Product Activation" do, then?