XP Product Key Question

[Guest]

I need to reinstall XP on my computer, a Compaq Presario, but the recovery disk that came with it cannot do this; it only lets me do a factory reset which will erase all my data. I have an XP disk that is installed on another computer; what I want to do is use this to reinstall XP on the first computer long enough to copy all my data onto CD's, without activating it. I will then format the hard drive and run the recovery CD and restore the computer to factory condition. I know I will have to use the product key from the second version of XP for this; I just want to make sure that formatting the hard drive will truly erase any record of this and that there will be no weird licensing problems later on.

A side question: I have an old Windows Me CD lying around somewhere, could I use this if I had to? I thought I remembered reading somewhere that XP used a different file structure or something that would make it unable to copy my old files. Anybody have any more information?

 

[Willie]

Why don't you take the HD out of the Compaq, and set it as slave in your
other computer, and copy your files to that computer?

Willie

I need to reinstall XP on my computer, a Compaq Presario, but the recovery

disk that came with it cannot do this; it only lets me do a factory reset
which will erase all my data. I have an XP disk that is installed on another
computer; what I want to do is use this to reinstall XP on the first
computer long enough to copy all my data onto CD's, without activating it. I
will then format the hard drive and run the recovery CD and restore the
computer to factory condition. I know I will have to use the product key
from the second version of XP for this; I just want to make sure that
formatting the hard drive will truly erase any record of this and that there
will be no weird licensing problems later on.

A side question: I have an old Windows Me CD lying around somewhere, could

I use this if I had to? I thought I remembered reading somewhere that XP
used a different file structure or something that would make it unable to
copy my old files. Anybody have any more information?

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

I need to reinstall XP on my computer, a Compaq Presario, but the
recovery disk that came with it cannot do this; it only lets me do a
factory reset which will erase all my data. I have an XP disk that is
installed on another computer; what I want to do is use this to
reinstall XP on the first computer long enough to copy all my data
onto CD's, without activating it. I will then format the hard drive
and run the recovery CD and restore the computer to factory
condition. I know I will have to use the product key from the second
version of XP for this; I just want to make sure that formatting the
hard drive will truly erase any record of this and that there will be
no weird licensing problems later on.

What is preventing you from backing up now? You (probably) couldn't use a
retail disc to repair a recovery CD installation.

A side question: I have an old Windows Me CD lying around somewhere,
could I use this if I had to? I thought I remembered reading
somewhere that XP used a different file structure or something that
would make it unable to copy my old files. Anybody have any more
information?

You couldn't use ME and it has nothing whatsoever to do with file systems
(unless your disk is formatted NTFS) but the fact that it's older than XP
and you'd need to format anyway and lose your data.

 

[Guest]

The safest thing to do is:
1. Run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard on the Presario.
2. Copy the File that this creates onto a CD [or multiple CDs].
3. Reimage your PC using the Compaq CDs
4. Install any additional applications that you use, such as Office.
5. Run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard and import the file that you created in steps 1 & 2.

That way you should have a fully functioning system with your internet access setup with usernames, passwords etc, plus email plus all your files [no matter if they are email, word, Quicken, or whatever they came from] with very little strain and effort.

ny other method will add a lot of clomplexity and require more effort.