Understanding XP's licence: my scenario

[Roach]

First, off, I searched this ng and Googled, but couldn't specifically answer
this so I apologize if I missed the answer somewhere. Here goes: I have an
older PC which had Win98 OEM on it. I later bought an XP Home upgrade
license and which worked fine for a year. Now my hard drive has failed but
I've read that I may have to buy another XP license, a full one, if I
replace the hard drive. Thanks for straitening this out.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

First, off, I searched this ng and Googled, but couldn't
specifically answer this so I apologize if I missed the answer
somewhere. Here goes: I have an older PC which had Win98 OEM on it.
I later bought an XP Home upgrade license and which worked fine for
a year. Now my hard drive has failed but I've read that I may have
to buy another XP license, a full one, if I replace the hard drive.
Thanks for straitening this out.

There should be no need to purchase another WinXP Home license.
You can reinstall the Upgrade on to the new hard drive, as long as you
still have the original Win98 installation CD to qualify for the
upgrade. (Only if you have lost, sold, given away, or discarded the
Win98 license would your upgrade license become invalid.)

It's quite possible to perform a clean installation using the
Upgrade CD, provided you have the true installation CD for the earlier
OS.

Simply boot from the WinXP Upgrade CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. The Upgrade CD checks to see if a qualifying OS
is installed, and, if it finds none, it asks you to insert the
installation media (CD) of that OS. Unfortunately, an OEM
"Recovery/Restore" CD will not work for this purpose; you must have a
true installation CD, complete with the "\Win98" folder and *.cab
files, or the "\i386" folder of WinNT/2K.

Alternatively, or especially if all you have is an OEM Recovery CD
for the earlier OS, you can even start the upgrade from within the
current Win98/Me/NT/2K installation, and still elect to perform a
clean installation, to include formatting the drive. In this case,
there's no further request for the qualifying OS's installation CD,
because the installation routing "remembers" that you started from
within the qualifying OS. This process is more time-consuming, but
you get the same results: a clean installation of WinXP.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

 

[Roach]

There should be no need to purchase another WinXP Home license.
You can reinstall the Upgrade on to the new hard drive, as long as you
still have the original Win98 installation CD to qualify for the
upgrade. (Only if you have lost, sold, given away, or discarded the
Win98 license would your upgrade license become invalid.)

It's quite possible to perform a clean installation using the
Upgrade CD, provided you have the true installation CD for the earlier
OS.

Simply boot from the WinXP Upgrade CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. The Upgrade CD checks to see if a qualifying OS
is installed, and, if it finds none, it asks you to insert the
installation media (CD) of that OS. Unfortunately, an OEM
"Recovery/Restore" CD will not work for this purpose; you must have a
true installation CD, complete with the "\Win98" folder and *.cab
files, or the "\i386" folder of WinNT/2K.

Alternatively, or especially if all you have is an OEM Recovery CD
for the earlier OS, you can even start the upgrade from within the
current Win98/Me/NT/2K installation, and still elect to perform a
clean installation, to include formatting the drive. In this case,
there's no further request for the qualifying OS's installation CD,
because the installation routing "remembers" that you started from
within the qualifying OS. This process is more time-consuming, but
you get the same results: a clean installation of WinXP.

--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

Bruce, thanks for the speedy and thorough reply. Yes I still have the
original OEM Win98 disk, so I'll take that route. This is a great relief to
me. I guess it occasionally pays to be a CD packrat. Cheers, Roach

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Bruce, thanks for the speedy and thorough reply. Yes I still have
the original OEM Win98 disk, so I'll take that route. This is a
great relief to me. I guess it occasionally pays to be a CD
packrat. Cheers, Roach

You're welcome.
--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH