Xp Home Oem Bootable Disk

[dins93]

my lap top crashed. (b/c of an office patch downloading)

toshiba and microsoft told me to "borrow" a friends xp disk so i could at least boot

(i could not boot in any form using f8)

a friend lent me her xp i tried to do a console restore (my brain is fried sorry can't think of the name)

but when i was at the command promp, i could not do the cm thing

so i thought i would tri to do a repair install so i could at the very least back up my files and do a restore w/ my wonderful restore cd b/c i have oem but while doing that, system asked for product key - i tried the one on the bottom of my lap top but it didnt' work. my f riend did not want me to use her product key (toshiba told me i would need HER product key) and that is fine - but how can i back up my files???????

i don't want to do anythign illegal and can't really afford retail right now.

can i slip stream my friends xp so i can reinstall to back up? or will i have product key issues?

i would try to call microsoft, but their closed right now

i've been reading for hours .

[Astalavista]

dude

what is the operating system on your toshiba? before it crashed?

is the toshiba still under warranty or not?

did u buy it from a local store?

does your laptop have a disk drive or dvd burner?

here are some bootdisk images u can download and use to boot your laptop

http://www.nerdlabs.org/bootdisks/index.php

[MCT]

yes, ull have issues, cuz u cant use an OEM key on Retail edition without altering a file & its really easy, i cant tell u cuz its going against ms's eula, but if u google it it should bring it up, but u didnt hear it from me id suggest u 2 make a PE disk, its like an XP disk u dont have 2 install, but it will allow u 2 burn your stuff to cd (if u use the appropriate plugin)

[dins93]

I have not slept. I was up all night trying to make a cd. i did get it to boot, but it had a fatal catalog error??

I would guess the file you were referring to was the setupp.ini ????

I'm not sure it worked though. I used some settings from my friends XP disk (like the m.img file) and most the i386 file - but i used the rest from my recover CD.

an interesting thing, the Win51 and Win511c on the retail CD was for xp home,

but i discovered on my restore cd that it is win51 and win511p and it is the professional version.

how could toshiba PE this to be home edition?

any good sources i could try to PE my own disk and understand the file structure so i don't have fatal errors?

i'm getting less hopeful of recovering my disk as my laptop hangs for product cd

ami