Cant reformat.

[Guest]

On my laptop "inspiron 5100" i insert the windows XP cd and it works fine it
lets me delete the old stuff and reinstall with out the cdkey. but then on
another computer "dell dimension" i insert the same cd and it is like a
totaly different setup i click new installation and then it asks me for my
windows cdkey and when i inisert the key it says its invalid. i have no clue
why i cant reformat on the dimension. any help would be apreciated. thank you.

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

Dell operating systems are usually specific for the computer they were
purchesed with and will, in all probability, NOT install on any other
computer. They are usually "BIOS locked".

If you wish to install XP on the Dell Dimension machine you will either
need the XP disk that came with that machine (if in fact it was
purchased with XP or you will need to down load the XP drivers for your
particular hardware (motherboard drivers, soundcard drivers, video
drivers etc) from Dell and purchase a retail version of XP unless Dell
will sell you a copy of XP for the Dimension machine (unlikley).