Reinstalling a preinstalled WinXP

[StarSpeed]

Hi everyone how's it going?

I'm planning to reinstall Windows XP home edition. My PC came with the OS preinstalled already, so I don't have the CD. Will I need to purchase the CD, or is there a way for preinstalled users to reinstall WinXP without the CD?

Also, if I do have to buy the CD, I don't need to reactivate Windows XP if I follow this suggestion posted on another thread, right? See the ff: (originally posted by microsoftne)

If you have to reinstall Windows XP you normally will have to reactivate too. Well not anymore. Just copy wpa.dbl after you activated the first time. It is located in the WINDOWS\system32 folder. Now if you reinstall Windows XP just copy the file back and you're up and running again

So I can simply copy/backup wpa.dbl from my preinstalled XP, reinstall, then replace so I won't need to reactivate?

Thanks in advance

 

[Lostman]

I don't know about the activation thing, because I stay away from XP home, but is there another partition (look in my computer) that has the OS on it? Chances are you just run the setup from there.

 

[kboy]

Try this link Star, I think it might help ya http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1151566,00.asp