Restoring XP onto New Hard Drive -- Don't have old Windows ME CD?

[Guest]

I have a bad hard drive. I bought a new one and was in the process of
re-loading Windows XP onto the new drive. I bought the computer with Windows
ME on it and paid for the XP Upgrade. The only CDs I have are the XP Upgrade
CD and the Comqaq "Recovery CD".

The XP Load is requesting that I put in the old Windows ME CD to verify that
I can load the Windows XP Upgrade OS, but I don't have the CD. What can I
do? Anybody have this problem before?

 

[Lem]

You can try restoring the system to its ex-factory state with the Compaq Recovery
CD and then starting the upgrade from within Windows ME (rather than booting from
the XP Upgrade CD), but in a similar situation I found it easier to buy an
obsolete "full retail" Windows CD on eBay (Win 95, Win98 or Win Me will work).
(Caveat -- MS WinXP site says that Win95 "does not qualify" for upgrade, but I
have read that it does; safest bet is to get a Win98 or Win98se CD).

 

[kurttrail]

You can try restoring the system to its ex-factory state with the
Compaq Recovery CD and then starting the upgrade from within Windows
ME (rather than booting from the XP Upgrade CD), but in a similar
situation I found it easier to buy an obsolete "full retail" Windows
CD on eBay (Win 95, Win98 or Win Me will work). (Caveat -- MS WinXP
site says that Win95 "does not qualify" for upgrade, but I have read
that it does; safest bet is to get a Win98 or Win98se CD).

Win95 qualifies for the upgrade as a clean install only, no upgrades are
allowed.

To the OP. Just borrow a Windows install CD, any Win9x/2K install CD
will do, from a friend.

--
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Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
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[Lil' Dave]

Believe Compaq sells replacements as "losing" the restore CD is quite
common. The website address is self-explanatory.
"New Hard Drive Installation" <New Hard Drive
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[kurttrail]

"New Hard Drive Installation" <New Hard Drive
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message


Believe Compaq sells replacements as "losing" the restore CD is quite
common. The website address is self-explanatory.

Why would the OP need another Restore CD?

"The only CDs I have are the XP Upgrade CD and the Comqaq 'Recovery
CD'."

And heard people complain that once they bought a new Hard Drive the
Compaq recovery CD wouldn't work.

Plus a clean install is much better idea to do than upgrading over a
restored Compaq install, especially ME, the worst OS ever to come out of
Redmond.

Easiest way to get to use the XP Upgrade, is to "borrow" a friend's
Windows install CD, Win95 or later.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Lil' Dave]

Why would the OP need another Restore CD?

"The only CDs I have are the XP Upgrade CD and the Comqaq 'Recovery
CD'."

And heard people complain that once they bought a new Hard Drive the
Compaq recovery CD wouldn't work.

Plus a clean install is much better idea to do than upgrading over a
restored Compaq install, especially ME, the worst OS ever to come out of
Redmond.

Easiest way to get to use the XP Upgrade, is to "borrow" a friend's
Windows install CD, Win95 or later.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

Being "old school" with Compaqs and upgrades, my concern was with device
drivers for the Compaq. The recovery CD has these. A generic windows
install CD may not. Thus my suggestion.

Mine was not meant to lessen or degrade your reply if that was/is your reply
intent.

And, shame on both of us. The XP upgrade install may not work on this
platform with a generic XP upgrade CD anyway. Compaq sells their version of
an XP upgrade for exactly that reason for some of their models.

 

[kurttrail]

Being "old school" with Compaqs and upgrades, my concern was with
device drivers for the Compaq. The recovery CD has these. A generic
windows install CD may not. Thus my suggestion.

Mine was not meant to lessen or degrade your reply if that was/is
your reply intent.

And, shame on both of us. The XP upgrade install may not work on this
platform with a generic XP upgrade CD anyway. Compaq sells their
version of an XP upgrade for exactly that reason for some of their
models.

As I said, ". . . . a clean install is much better idea to do than
upgrading over a
restored Compaq install . . . ."

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"