Windows Validation

[Guest]

I have a computer with a bad harddrive. It was a Windows 98 computer and I
purchased the XP upgrade about a year ago. I could not load Windows, so I
purchased a new hard drive, made it the boot drive and installed an OEM XP I
had from my Dell Laptop since I cannot find my XP upgrade list.

Now how can I validate this installation, since I owe the orginal 98 and XP
installations. I still have the old hard-drive which I kept in the computer
as a secondary hard drive. I can read some of the files. Is it possible to
extract the Product Key from the Windows files on the secondary hard drive?
Is this something Microsoft customer services will help?

Or I have to buy a new product because I cannot find the orginal CD?

Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

If you installed your Laptop's XP on your desktop PC and you still have XP
on your laptop – you'll need to purchase additional license to the desktop PC
(yes, this with the new hard drive).

But if you using the DELL XP CD only and only for the desktop PC you can
find the Product key of the DELL CD on your laptop (on a sticker) and if you
don't find this on your laptop try to contact with DELL Corporation and to
fix this problem, for example – I live in Israel and I have HP Pavilion PC,
now my XP CD has been broken and I called to HP and they fix this problem for
me – so you better check with DELL what can you do.

 

[Guest]

I found the XP upgrade disk but it is in Orlando and I am in Miami now. I
can get the product key but I see that I have to reinstall the full version
of 98 and then re-install the XP upgrade version. Is there a shorter way?
Can I just reinstall the Upgrade version over this OEM version and use the
product key? I purchased the Win 98 and purchased the XP, and I even
registered them, so it will be unfair to require that I purchase another
license.

Is there anyway out of this without installing Win 98 and then the XP upgrade?

 

[Guest]

There is an option that you format the hard disk and then insert the XP
upgrade CD, after few steps you'll get screen that ask you to insert the 98
CD, insert him and after insert again the XP CD according to the installation
wizard.

About the CD – if you in Orlando, I think you can try to call to Microsoft
Corporation, to validate few things with them and to ask them to send you a
XP Upgrade CD with SP2 (the most newest).

Good Luck!

 

[Donald L McDaniel]

I have a computer with a bad harddrive. It was a Windows 98 computer and I
purchased the XP upgrade about a year ago.

The XP Upgrade CD (Retail) may be used to install on any computer, as
long as it is only installed and activated on one of them at a time.

I could not load Windows, so I
purchased a new hard drive, made it the boot drive and installed an OEM XP I
had from my Dell Laptop since I cannot find my XP upgrade list.

This was your mistake. The OEM XP CD produced by Dell can only be
legally installed and activated on the machine it was originally
provided with. OEM licenses of XP cannot be legally transferred to a
second or third machine.

Now how can I validate this installation, since I owe the orginal 98 and XP
installations. I still have the old hard-drive which I kept in the computer
as a secondary hard drive. I can read some of the files. Is it possible to
extract the Product Key from the Windows files on the secondary hard drive?
Is this something Microsoft customer services will help?

Or I have to buy a new product because I cannot find the orginal CD?

Microsoft has always had the policy that its OSes may only be
installed on one machine at a time. If you REALLY want to be legal,
remove the Dell OEM XP software from your computer with the new hard
drive, then purchase a second copy of XP to install on it.

Thanks for any assistance.

Donald L McDaniel
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