hard disk failure

[Tracy]

Hi my hard disk with Windows XP Home on it failed so I bought a new hard
disk. The problem is that I do not have a cd-rom with Windows XP home on it
as the computer had a restore partition.

I have a cd-rom with Windows XP Pro but I cannot use the windows key that I
have stuck on my computer as it is for Windows XP Home. Luckily I have a
back up of all my files and programs I just do not have a copy of Windows XP
home.

Is there a way so that I can use my Windows XP Home key with a Windows XP
Pro cd-rom as I get an incorrect key message. Possibly because the Windows
XP Home is an OEM version and the version of XP Pro is not, but I do not
even have a key for the XP Pro version as I borrowed it from a friend who
has bought a new computer with Vista and dispossed of the old one but kept
the Windows XP Pro cd-rom. Also the manufacturer of my computer has closed
down so I cannot even get a cd-rom from them.

Thanks for any suggestions, Tracy

 

[LVTravel]

If the original hard disk with the recovery partition is totally dead you
will either have to purchase a full retail or OEM version of XP Home or a
license for the version of Pro that you have and since the manufacturer of
your computer has closed up shop the last suggestion I would make has no
bearing on the topic (contact the manufacturer for a CD.) Of course if you
can find someone with a duplicate computer (same make and probably model)
that has a rebuild partition still on it you may be able to clone that
partition onto your hard drive.

Although it is too late now, when you purchased the computer with the
rebuild partition you should have immediately created rebuild CD/DVDs using
whatever software the company supplied.

Now, if the hard drive is not totally dead and you can access the rebuild
partition on the drive you may be able to clone that partition onto another
drive to use as your rebuild partition.

 

[DL]

If your friends winxp was a retail edition you can install that and use
their key - theirs is no longer in use
You wont be able to install your programs from backup, but you should be
able to recover data