Confused about XP cd reformat

[neworldman]

I have my friends Dell pc that needs to have the hard drive reformatted and XP reinstalled. He does not have the original XP cd for it. I have a XP cd but when I tried to use it to reinstall XP on another pc it would only take the keys from the cd not the keys from the pc sticker. Is there a differnt type of XP cd I need to reformat and reinstall windows? Or should I use Wipe Drive and start over with new XP cd?

[TJohns]

License numbers for the "standard" edition don't work if using a Volume License/Corporate/OEM disk & vice-versa

Trevor

[aedipuss]

dell's sometimes have built in backup partition. f11 or f12 at boot. it does a format / clean re-install and no serial is needed.

[hech54]

I recently used MY old Dell discs to reinstall XP Pro on my wife's friend's computer....did a quick format, installed perfectly and never asked for any kind of license info.

[CobraPilot]

I used this technique on several XP SP2 computers with great success. Don't know if it works with an SP3 computer, but there are several links to some repair options and suggestions.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897

[ranchhand]

Like Tjohns said above, you can do this, but you need the same version of the OS that your friend's computer is running: (eg): XP Home for XP Home, XP Pro for XP Pro, Corporate for Corporate, etc. You can't swap them, the keys won't match. By the way, the same principle applies to repair reinstall also, if you attempt to use a XP Pro disk to repair an XP Home edition installation, no go. Microsoft doesn't care about the plastic disk, their concern is the License number. I am not sure about OEM disks from manufacturers like Dell, I just keep a copy of the major XP operating systems and when I get a call I repair reinstall (as Cobrapilot suggested) "over the top" a client's system using his version and his key number.