Win XP OEM help -- please

sydeccles · 23 May 2007 at 13:29

I have a Toshiba Lap Top with XP Pro OEM installed, all legal, I have the serial numbers on the stickers on the base of the Lap Top. However I no longer have the XP CD that came with the system.

I do have a copy of XP OEM SP1 that came with an HP computer that I purchased a few years back.

My question is: I need to reload windows on my laa top as it has become mega slow. Can I use the HP CD with my Toshiba serial or not.

Brian Stuart · 23 May 2007 at 13:54

You should be able to do that with no problems but I would advise using a programme like Nlite to slipstream SP2 onto an installation disk as it is better than doing a post install upgrade

gareth170 · 23 May 2007 at 13:55

sydeccles said:
I have a Toshiba Lap Top with XP Pro OEM installed, all legal, I have the serial numbers on the stickers on the base of the Lap Top. However I no longer have the XP CD that came with the system.

I do have a copy of XP OEM SP1 that came with an HP computer that I purchased a few years back.

My question is: I need to reload windows on my laa top as it has become mega slow. Can I use the HP CD with my Toshiba serial or not.

yes. you can...

did your Toshiba laptop xp cd have sp1 or sp2?

rob5ta · 23 May 2007 at 15:39

gareth170 said:
yes. you can...

Sorry guys - i disagree. I work in an IT department, and we buy laptops directly from HP, and can remember that when attempting to boot the HP OEM cd on a non-HP piece of equipment an error message appears along the lines of this machine is not HP and cannot be used, blah blah.

If I remember rightly it was something to do with the PID section of the setupp.ini file in the i386 folder. This information relates to what kind of key corresponds to the disk, whether it be OEM, Retail, or Corporate.

If the PID information is changed to that of a Toshiba OEM disk, and re-burned then it will work, but im fairly sure you will be out of luck if the PID section is not changed as it is tied to manufacturer.

In theory - yes it is an OEM CD, so is perfectly legal to use with your Toshiba laptop, and the key would work, but you will be prevented from booting it in the first instance so you wouldnt be able to get as far as entering your key.

If it was a standard OEM disk, then you wouldnt have an issue.

This was the case about 18 months ago anyway. Things may have changed since then as i have not played around with the later HP OEM disks.

sydeccles · 23 May 2007 at 20:23

Thanks for the help.....HP XP SP1A CD slipsteamed SP2........booted from CD installed with my Toshiba serial and activated with no found on COA label.