Windows XP Update does not authenticate

[Guest]

My story goes as follows, 6 weeks ago I bought windows XP update to improve
functionality of my old PC. No problems with this update, but then last week
the hard drive failed. Decide it was cheaper to buy a secondhand machine than
a new hard drive. This is where I appear to have made a fundamental mistake,
I decide to update the version of XP on this machine using my relatively new
CD. Install appeared to go ok except it asks for authentication at the login
in screen but goes no further.

There is no error message or option to recover, so any ideas how to resolve
this would be much apreciated.

 

[Guest]

Actually you've violated microsofts conditions when you transfered xp to
a "other" pc,1 copy of xp,1 pc only....However,the reason for youre current
issue,you need to boot to xp cd,select install xp,new copy,delete the
partition(s)
create one,then let xp format & install.You'll probably get asked for older
wind-
ows cd before the install to allow an "upgrade"...

 

[Guest]

You are probably right regarding the microsofts anti piracy rules being the
cause of the proplem, but to me it seems perfectly fair so long as i only
have the software installed on on machine at a time.