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Installing Windows XP using a Dell disk, on a non-Dell computer RRS feed

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    Apologies if this has been answered before, but I think my question is subtly different to the ones asked before that the search threw up.

    I have a (HP/Compaq) computer running Windows XP Professional, licenced on a volume licence agreement. I wish to rebuild/reinstall this computer to solve some problems I am having.

    However, it is so long since I've done an XP install that I have mislaid my MS installation media! The nearest thing I can find is a Dell-branded XP Pro reinstallation CD, which would obviously have come with a different computer to this one.

    I've never used one of these Dell CDs before - I've always built machines from MS VL media, or customised corporate images/network installers - so I don't know whether the licence is somehow embedded into the CD, or whether it's still going to ask me for a product key.

    My question therefore is not 'can I fool this CD into installing on a Compaq, using the Dell-specific licence that may or may not be embedded in the CD', rather:

    Is it possible to use this CD to perform a fresh install of XP Pro, using the volume licence key that the Compaq is already running?

     

    Friday, April 15, 2011 11:56 AM

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    "Sam York" wrote in message news:1fd2df40-221a-4c55-a232-f27bb5b72d57...

    Apologies if this has been answered before, but I think my question is subtly different to the ones asked before that the search threw up.

    I have a (HP/Compaq) computer running Windows XP Professional, licenced on a volume licence agreement. I wish to rebuild/reinstall this computer to solve some problems I am having.

    However, it is so long since I've done an XP install that I have mislaid my MS installation media! The nearest thing I can find is a Dell-branded XP Pro reinstallation CD, which would obviously have come with a different computer to this one.

    I've never used one of these Dell CDs before - I've always built machines from MS VL media, or customised corporate images/network installers - so I don't know whether the licence is somehow embedded into the CD, or whether it's still going to ask me for a product key.

    My question therefore is not 'can I fool this CD into installing on a Compaq, using the Dell-specific licence that may or may not be embedded in the CD', rather:

    Is it possible to use this CD to perform a fresh install of XP Pro, using the volume licence key that the Compaq is already running?

     


    Simple answer is NO.
    Volume Licenses are classed as Retail - not OEM - and XP disks for Retail and OEM have distinctly different 'bits', including allowable Keys.
    Even if you could get the Dell disc to complete the install (I suspect that it would fail at the point of reading the Key from the installer), you cannot then change the Key to a Volume License one using the Product Key Update tool, as that only works the other way around AFAIK.
     

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    Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth
    Friday, April 15, 2011 12:54 PM
    Moderator