Hardware points - a bit fuzzy on a few things

[Hardtale]

Hello,

 

I bought DCS today from D2D and I'm still a bit fuzzy to me in regards to adding/removing hardware and the points system.

 

Right now I have 3 main drives:

xp install drive

Vista64 Drive (I plan on using this OS for DCS)

Game install Drive

 

In addition I have a 500gb sata that I use as extra storage/backups that I swap out occasionally between my pc's.

 

 

 

So my concern/question is: do the hardware points occur every time hardware is removed and/or re-added?

 

And, for example in my case, If I connect the 4th drive before installing DCS will I still take a hit each time I pop it in and out?

 

Just trying figure out the best method as to not burn activations.

 

 

Also, as this just came to mind as I was typing out the question, what about normal removeable storage devices such as my mp3 player, USB sticks, both camera and vid camera....all these things show up as drives when connected!?!

 

Thanks for any help!

Edited June 19, 2009 by Hardtale

[Hardtale]

Can anybody can give me some insight to this.

 

Surely, I can't be the only one out there that uses a removable drive.

 

Nothing here and nothing from email support....anybody awake in here ;)

[joey45]

It shouldn't effect the activations.. only if you install it on both drives you'll lose a activation.

[PeterP]

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=568704&postcount=3

Q: What form of copy protection does the product utilize?

 

A: The currently available English download and boxed releases of DCS: Black Shark both utilize StarForce ProActive copy protection technology. The products require online activation, which is done automatically if internet connection is available. Black Shark can also be activated via eMail or the StarForce website.

 

If StarForce detects changes to your computer hardware/software as described below, an activation will be required. The English versions include 8 (eight) activations and 10 (ten) deactivations. It's important to note that deactivations are utilized to save your activations when altering your PC hardware/software. Before conducting a PC upgrade/OS re-install, you can deactivate the product and when complete, reactivate without a loss of activations.

http://www.star-force.com/support/users/deactivate/

 

An activation will be required if the hardware/software changes exceed 12 points as rated below:

 

CPU ID: 13

Windows PID: 3

Computer Name: 3

Hard drive volume serial number: 3

MAC address: 6

RAM amount: 6

 

If you just uninstall Black Shark and then reinstall it again on the same PC without reinstalling your operating system or changing hardware, you do not need to use a deactivation.

 

Also note that both the English download and boxed DVD versions use StarForce ProActive which doesn’t install drivers or other system modules. The DVD version does not rely on DVD check, and there is no way to launch it via disk check.

 

For further details on the copy protection system, please see the StarForce FAQ:

http://www.star-force.com/support/users/group2.php

 

In addition, a step-by-step (de)activation guide is available below and will also be included in the product documentation:

http://www.star-force.com/support/users/group4.php#6

 

StarForce provides an option for manual online activation. For those using the Russian version of the release, a quick guide for manual activation can be found here:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?...8&postcount=14

 

We are evaluating the possibility of providing an additional version of the western release, utilizing Steam technologies.

 

In case of unknown activation problems, first of all try to update StarForce.

"Hard drive volume serial number: 3"

I understand it in the way that every time you launch BlackShark from a different hard drive on the same system you will lose 3 points (13points=new activation), but If you are running it always from the same hard drive it will have no change to the point counter.

 

It should change nothing what other drives you are using beside the one on which BlackShark is installed, because (as I understand it and-it seems logical to me) Starforce should only check what hard drive BlackShark is running from and should not be interested in what/how any other drives are attached on the system.

You can hardly say that its a today's criteria, to identify a computer by counting the hard drive volumes it has.

 

If this would be really a criteria for Starforce you would probably see the forum sprayed all over with posts about hard drives/Starforce problems.

 

I have two external Sata drives and one iPod that I'm using frequently on my system with two internal drives - and I discovered no problem so far.

Edited June 20, 2009 by PeterP

[Hardtale]

Thank you for the response.

 

As with many hardcore gamers/PC users I change out hardware for upgrades fairly frequently so I was just trying to tread carefully to retain my activations for the future.

 

I plan on installing Win7 once my other spare drive returns from RMA so thats going to be 2 activations right there. I'll deal with that when the time comes though.

 

 

Thanks again, going to go install it now.....activation 1 coming up lol

[Distiler]

You can also use deactivations (you got 7 activations and 10 deactivations). Typically you'll spend first deactivations.