Office 2011 Activation

[Oldmanmac]

I am trying to activate my Office 2011. I found that I had the problem the other day when I tried to install the latest update. A screen asked for my activation key. I entered it twice. Then, another screen asked if I wanted to try activating by phone. I had to input 12(?) groups of 6 numbers, which would not work saying I had used up myactivations.
So, I called MS and after explaining it to3 different levels was told I was SOL.

I just tried my external hd CCC backup and it's giving me the same thing. Ok, maybe I'd backed up (copied) the internal hd with the same problem. I have a 3rd hd backup, but I'm hesitant to try it in case it becomes corrupted.
I don't particularly care to buy 2016 as it's bloated overkill to me.
Ideas?

 

[Flynnstone]

I know your pain!
I swapped a hard drive in a MacBook Pro (2013 model). Office wanted to activate. I couldn't activate as I had used up all the activations. It was the same computer, the same user, just a larger hard drive!
I don't like Microsoft's activation model.

 

[chscag]

I know your pain!
I swapped a hard drive in a MacBook Pro (2013 model). Office wanted to activate. I couldn't activate as I had used up all the activations. It was the same computer, the same user, just a larger hard drive!
I don't like Microsoft's activation model.

Microsoft used to purge the activation data base every four months making it possible to start over. I don't know if they still do that or not. I have not had a problem with moving Office 2011 twice now to new machines but that may be because I purchased the 3 licensed version. However, it never asked me to enter the product key each time I moved it.

 

[BrianBaughn]

It's ridiculous to base licensing on a hard drive ID. It's probably item number 2,344,567 on MS's list of "screwed up things that waste our overseas tech support people's time".

 

[Oldmanmac]

Ok, Ii give up MS!

I am gonna grasp at straws here, but....
It first happened on my internal drive and has continued on everything else. Would the internal drive hold something that all the other drives would pickup?