Clean installation XP

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Hi all,

I have a friends computer that won't boot up at all.

He as also lost the Windows XP pro disk to do another clean install.

However the 25 digit windows XP pro activation key is still on the tower case.

I do have a windows XP pro disk which came with a different activation key of course.

Could I do a clean install with my disk using the windows XP pro activation key on his tower's case?

The only doubts I have is my friends computer is a advent oem. Would my friends computers activation key have a problem with my micro-soft XP pro disk (not a oem) during install?

Or is my friends computer activation key to be used by advent only ( Do Manufacturers buy activation keys like Dell, HP, Compaq, or advent off Microsoft to compile their own Windows XP disks)?

Answers will be much appreciated.

 

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Came here to get some sound tips on Windows but did not expect to get an opportunity to suggest myself. Anyway I tried that once myself and did not work. Actually I lost my own XP disc but the key was written in a different place. Tried to install from another CD but despite installation the activation key was not authorized. I guess the same problem would happen in your case too.

 

It depends is the answer.

If your disk is the same version as that installed (i.e. SP1/SP1a/SP2 etc) then it *may* work. You would, of course, have to get any drivers from Advent (and good luck !).

The only way to know is to suck it and see.

However, it also depends what you mean by it won't boot. Do you mean it tries to access the boot partition and can't or do you mean the machine is dead and doesn't even detect the drive at the hardware level ? If it's the former then you should be able to boot from your cd and go into Recovery mode (command line) and repair/restore the boot.

Warning - if you're not sure what you're doing with this, get hime to take it into a local computer shop !

 

why is the system not booting up at all. is there any OS installed on the pc that is not booting up or not???