Reloading full Windows XP on a previously 98ME upgraded to XP

[Guest]

I've got an old Gateway computer that my wife uses that originally was
installed with Win 98ME. At one point, I bought the upgrade to XP CD and
upgraded the computer. It's been quite a while since doing that and the
computer has been acting kind of flakey lately so I decided to reformat and
reinstall XP on the computer. I had a copy of full XP home edition from my
laptop and used that to load the OS on the machine. Previously I've had to
load 98 and then use the upgrade XP disc to get XP on other machines. I
wanted to load XP clean and straight onto the computer for best performance.
Anyway, XP is loaded and I used my laptop product # to load it and was going
to call in to activate XP and explain what I did. I own the XP upgrade disk,
but realized that the product # tag on the side of the machine was for 98ME,
that's why I used my laptop # to finish reinstalling XP onthe machine.
Anyway, I can not find the product code for the XP upgrade disc and am
wondering how I can get this reloaded XP activated. Help? Anyone. I have
legal copies for the machine, but can't find the product code to activate.

 

[neil]

I don't think you will be able to activate XP because you have used the disk
for your laptop. The license you have for your laptop only allows you to
install XP on your laptop.

You need to find the CD key that came with the upgrade disk and then
re-install XP using that. I believe if you can boot from that disk then the
setup process will ask for the win98 CD to confirm the win98 license then
continue to allow you to do a clean install.

Neil

 

[Guest]

Neil,

I seem to remember trying this before and it required you to install
98ME first and then use the upgrade disk. I don't believe that it would let
me load XP directly. I was trying to avoid having to load 98ME and load a
clean install of XP. Sounds like I may be out of luck. In any case, if I
contact MS, do you think they can give the product # for the XP upgrade disk
that I have? Still haven't found it.

 

[neil]

You could contact them to find out but you will need proof of purchase and I
still think you will run into problems because you have used your laptop CD.
Neil