XP activation loop

Hi, seems that activation is being tricky here. I have a freshly installed (licensed) Parallels on my Mac and a licensed XP express image but after entering the password, XP wants to activate the MS license. If I say NO, it boots again. If I say YES, it says already activated and reboots after clicking OK. So two choices but the same effect ;-) Your help, John, is greatly appreciated.

 

Do you mean , you use Boot Camp VM?

 

no, only Parallels

 

and XP boots inside the VM (not the Mac).

 

Could you please screenshot about already activated message?

 

here we are

 

Same problem

The windows keep re looping to activation then reboots. FYI I'm using my old laptop's hard drive with windows on it. And using a USB port to run the hard drive from my MAC....

 

I suppose you can try Windows repair
http://kb.parallels.com/en/5138