MS Office 2011 asks for license when I boot external eSATA drives

Question

Level 3

695 points

MS Office 2011 asks for license when I boot external eSATA drives

This is interesting, and really frustrating to say the least. I finally got Office 2011 working on my new MP, no thanks to MS. I spent over 8 hours on the phone, getting disconnected multiple times, and no one I spoke with could tell me why the darn thing kept asking for and not accepting as valid my product key. This was after I transferred the user and applications from a Time Capsule backup to my new MP. I completely removed Office, reinstalled, and then imported an Outlook OLM I had exported. It took the product key and all has been well until now. I have run Disk Utility permissions several times....

I installed an OWC eSATA two port card and attached their two HD enclosure containing two drives. Power them up, they work great, but now when I boot Outlook or any of the applications in the suite, up pops the license window.... ugh. Eject both drives, still fails. Power off the enclosure, they all work. The only thing I can figure it is, is the license protection thinking I installed it on a different machine. So now I'm stuck with Office not working when the external eSATA is on.

I thought about attempting to enter the license when they were running, but I can't risk losing my email and Office if it messes up. I saw a similar post on the Office for Mac 2011 Blog. I was going to install Win 7 on one of my internals and this situation has brought that to a screeching halt. Heck, I'll go to bed and sleep on it.... not well but I'll try.

Michael

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 2.4 8 core, MBP, MBA, yadda yadda

Posted on Aug 16, 2011 2:56 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Michaelworks Author

Level 3

695 points

Aug 16, 2011 1:17 PM in response to Michaelworks

After an initial call to OWC Support, we agreed that the drives in the external enclosure become disk0 and disk1 and protection software for Office doesn't like that one becomes the "first" or "main" BSD disk. So far, none of my other license key software has issues. Way to go MS....

I thought of moving the eSATA card to a different slot and testing, but I think I will wait to see what OWC comes up with. BTW, they are a class act (OWC).

Michael

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 28, 2011 4:56 AM in response to Michaelworks

I have just got a problem with my MBP 2011 in that when I plugged in a Thunderbolt LaCie Little Big Disk plus two firewire drives when I opened Excel it asked for the product key. When I enetered it ( which has happened a few times since I got this MBP) the maximum number of activations was exceeded. I called MS who did provide a new product key and I thought all was well, but when I shutdown the MBP, unplugged the Thunderbolt drive and the firewire drives and rebooted it asked for a product key again. I will try plugging in the Thundrbolt disk again and then the firewire drives and see if it still asks for a new product key. But if this is a repeatable problem then it is a real issue.

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 21, 2011 9:48 AM in response to gadget_aussie_man

I have the same issue with a 2011 13" MBA, Thunderbolt display with a LaCie Littel Big Disk and MS Office 2011. Office is fine unless I am connected to the Thunderbolt stuff. Then I get a prompt for a MS product key.

MS support told me that I have "an unsupported configuration" and that's it....

I expressed to them that this should be considered a bug. This will become a much bigger issue as more Thunderbolt peripherals come out and are adopted...

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 22, 2011 5:46 PM in response to robertfromgrant

I had better luck wih Microsoft, they are conducting a "triage" to try and find a solution to the issue. I have also notified Apple Support.

Reply

Answer 5

Jan 8, 2013 10:40 AM in response to Michaelworks

Well, here we are, January of 2013, this problem still persists. And as usual, Microsoft are about as useful as a one-legged man in an arse kicking competition.

Reply

Answer 6

Wbrad

Level 1

0 points

Jan 12, 2013 12:42 AM in response to Michaelworks

All

Have you tried MS Service Pack2 Update? I have read in several instances this has corrected the problem, I have been out of the country for several months but I was hoping to try my Lacie Drive again next month when I get back home, I have confirmed with MS support that it is a bug, When plugging and unplugging MS Office 2011 sees this as a hardware configuration change and thinks you installed their product on a different machine. Hope SP2 does the trick!

Reply