Reinstalling Win XP, problems

BENdage · 12 Jan 2008 at 19:40

Hi all,

I'm trying to reinstall win xp on a friends laptop. His HDD died a few weeks ago and Dell sent him a new one, so now I need to put windows back on for him. He cant find the win xp disk he got with it. My XP Home SP2 disk wont work with it as his cd-key is for pro, so I tried a friends XP pro SP2 and that doesnt work either.

Does anyone know if there is somewhere I can put his CD key in and find out what version its for? I'm guessing its gonna be an OEM disk for pro, but whether its vanilla, SP1 or SP2 I dont have a clue. Once I know what we need I can probably beg borrow or steal a disk just to get him going again.

Any help much appreciated...

Priapus · 12 Jan 2008 at 19:45

On the sticker it should say if it's an OEM or Retail copy. Also, I am pretty sure it will need to be a Dell labled Windows XP Pro disc as this is the case with most manufacturers. So someone with a Dell computer who has their original disc that came with the computer should be able to help.

BENdage · 12 Jan 2008 at 19:51

I thought it might need to be a Dell. It just says Windows XP Professional 1-2CPU so I dunno what service pack. I'll try borrow some dell disks from work

Priapus · 12 Jan 2008 at 19:54

Well the stickers never tell you if it's SP1 or SP2. However since the sticker doesn't say OEM, I would assume it needs to be retail copy. Also it doesn't say Dell on the sticker at all, does it?

BENdage · 12 Jan 2008 at 19:59

Yeah, it does, but under the product key like this;

Windows XP Professional 1-2CPU
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
DELL

Priapus · 12 Jan 2008 at 20:10

Then you will need a Dell disc. Try the ones you have at work, might do the trick.