If the drive crashes and you're not able to deactivate the license I'd contact MeLabs and ask them for help. Given their record I'm sure they'll help you out.

The Activation Manager needs internet access during the activation process. Once activated the compiler will work without internet connection. There IS also a way to "manually" activate the license on a machine without internet access.

If/when MeLabs shuts down business I hope they will release a version of the compiler that has the license activation removed completely.