I got a laptop from a friend of mine (Compaq Presario 2700) and he had lost the recovery disks some time back. The OS seems to have a lot of bugs that I can't seem to fix. I wanted to reinstall the OS, so I went and checked the HP/Compaq drivers and updates for my machine. Problem is, they don't offer the recovery disks anymore, the laptops about 6 years old. So, my question is, can I install a copy of XP Home (that I have on another computer) by using that disk and put the XP key in thats listed on the bottom of the laptop? I didn't know if the cd key is built into the OS and it could tell that it was not the correct one or if it would work but is illegal or something. Thanks
XP install with different disk?
- Thread starter kprtop
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As long as you have the right version of OEM disc (i.e. XP Home if he has Home on his PC right now) it should work. You may have to call MS to activate though, since OEM's usually only allow 1 activation (the initial activation), which you then have to call MS to get it activated. I just had to do this the other day with a client's PC, because they did not have reinstall discs, but I had a XP disc I could use to reinstall their OS, and I just had to call MS to get them to reactivate it (took about 10 minutes with a pre-programmed voice).
I see, thanks. I am actually trying to learn about computers, but OSs aren't something I've gotten into very deeply yet. Did a lil research and I have a retail version of XP Home. I am kind of affraid to try installing my copy on the laptop using its key, if it doesn't work then I'm left having to buy a new copy of XP. Is it possible to extract the correct files from the laptop to create a new XP cd to reinstall?
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