Change to XP OEM version without reformatting?

[Beau Newcomb]

One of my end-users in all their glorious brilliance decided to
reinstall XP Pro SP1 (a version they had from home) and in the process
also removed the lenovo recovery partition. They've been using it
like this for a couple weeks now, have all their apps, etc, but they
are complaining that windows is going to expire soon. I know if I had
been able to do a normal restore from the restore partition, XP would
be automatically activated. I'm wondering if it's possible to run a
repair using a lenovo disk to get the right version on there that
won't expire or require activation? What are my options?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You'll have to use the Lenovo recovery disc
and perform a destructive recovery which
will begin by reformatting the hard drive.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows System & Performance

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

One of my end-users in all their glorious brilliance decided to
reinstall XP Pro SP1 (a version they had from home) and in the process
also removed the lenovo recovery partition. They've been using it
like this for a couple weeks now, have all their apps, etc, but they
are complaining that windows is going to expire soon. I know if I had
been able to do a normal restore from the restore partition, XP would
be automatically activated. I'm wondering if it's possible to run a
repair using a lenovo disk to get the right version on there that
won't expire or require activation? What are my options?

 

[smlunatick]

One of my end-users in all their glorious brilliance decided to
reinstall XP Pro SP1 (a version they had from home) and in the process
also removed the lenovo recovery partition.  They've been using it
like this for a couple weeks now, have all their apps, etc, but they
are complaining that windows is going to expire soon.  I know if I had
been able to do a normal restore from the restore partition, XP would
be automatically activated.  I'm wondering if it's possible to run a
repair using a lenovo disk to get the right version on there that
won't expire or require activation? What are my options?

Lenovo "recovery" disks have an image of the drive at the time the
"PC" left their factory. It would completely erase the hard drive and
then "restore" the version of XP that the image stores. (It does not
do an formatting but erases everything.)

 

[Beau Newcomb]

Lenovo "recovery" disks have an image of the drive at the time the
"PC" left their factory. It would completely erase the hard drive and
then "restore" the version of XP that the image stores. (It does not
do an formatting but erases everything.)

ok. thanks guys.. i was hoping to fix this without having to lose his
current install. lesson learned thanks