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Reinstallation of XP Home on new hard drive - Product Key Not Valid message RRS feed

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    Hi,

    My hard drive recently crashed on my Dell laptop.  I bought a new hard drive and installed it in my laptop in place of the bad hard drive.

    Now, when attempting to reinstall XP Home on my laptop on the new hard drive, I am getting a Product Key Not Valid message, and I am unable to proceed with the installation.

    I am using the product key from the COA on the bottom of my laptop.  Also, I am using a slipstream install disk that I created using my Dell reinstallation XP Home disk and a copy of XP SP3 that I downloaded from Microsoft.  The installation was going fine until I encountered the product key issue. :-(
    Very frustrated...this shouldn't be that hard, right?

    Please help me out on what I can do.

    Thanks,

    Jeremiah
    Thursday, January 1, 2009 11:45 AM

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    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     


    XXXXXXXX best course of action would be to use the original Dell CD to re-install XP as it should be pre-activated by Dell.

    • Marked as answer by jmiah1 Thursday, January 1, 2009 7:11 PM
    • Unmarked as answer by RickImAPC Friday, January 9, 2009 6:12 PM
    • Edited by RickImAPC Friday, January 9, 2009 6:13 PM Removed PK Information
    • Marked as answer by RickImAPC Friday, January 9, 2009 6:15 PM
    Thursday, January 1, 2009 3:48 PM

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    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
     


    XXXXXXXX best course of action would be to use the original Dell CD to re-install XP as it should be pre-activated by Dell.

    • Marked as answer by jmiah1 Thursday, January 1, 2009 7:11 PM
    • Unmarked as answer by RickImAPC Friday, January 9, 2009 6:12 PM
    • Edited by RickImAPC Friday, January 9, 2009 6:13 PM Removed PK Information
    • Marked as answer by RickImAPC Friday, January 9, 2009 6:15 PM
    Thursday, January 1, 2009 3:48 PM
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    Chris464 said:

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
    XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 
     

    XXXXXXXXXXXXX best course of action would be to use the original Dell CD to re-install XP as it should be pre-activated by Dell.



    Thanks for that advice, Chris!  I used the original Dell CD to re-install XP, and it installed fine with no issues.

    To interrupt the in-progress installation (which I had started from the slipstream disk I created), and restart the installation, I performed the following steps:

    1.  Placed my original Win XP Home Dell reinstall CD in my CD/DVD Drive.
    2.  Turned the computer off by holding down the power button for several seconds until the system powered down.
    3.  After a couple seconds, pressed the power button again to turn on the computer.
    4.  I got a prompt on the screen to press any key to boot from CD, and I immediately pressed a key.

    After that, the XP install was restarted from the CD, and went fine.

    Of course, earlier, before starting the re-install, I had used the Dell setup screen to change the boot order, setting my CD/DVD drive as first in the boot order list.

    (I've included all these details here in case they are useful to anyone else who reads this post)

    If I decide to re-install again at some point, I'll try to edit the XXXXXXXXXXXX like you suggested.  In the meantime, I hope your answer to my question can also help others.

    Thanks again!
    • Edited by RickImAPC Friday, January 9, 2009 6:15 PM Removed PK Information
    Thursday, January 1, 2009 7:09 PM