i've got a HP laptop that has a windows xp home edition licence, but i've lost the cd for it, i've tried a couple OEM and retail versions, but they dont accept the key on the bottom of the laptop can anyone help me?

thanks mitch

Read this thread.

http://www.thetechguide.com/howto/setuppini.html

MrChris

Edited June 30, 200620 yr by MrChris

As a Royalty OEM, HP probably has a specific product key for installation of preactivated HP OEM CD's (or recovery partitions as the case may be). If you find an HP OEM CD, the product key should be included in the winnt.sif file.

Otherwise, Microsoft has a page posting generic product keys for installation (but not activation) of Windows XP Home, Pro, etc. Just do a search on microsoft.com and you'll find it.

Maybe it is difficult to find that CD Key.

So please contact HP,HP can help you to get another CD.

Good luck.

i've got a HP laptop that has a windows xp home edition licence, but i've lost the cd for it, i've tried a couple OEM and retail versions, but they dont accept the key on the bottom of the laptop can anyone help me?

thanks mitch

You should be able to use the Key on your laptop with a generic OEM CD. You will just have to activate by phone because your key is blocked from online activation.

If you want to rebuild a preactivated CD you can get the OEMBIOS files from http://www.oembios.net (Posting OEMBIOS files was already OKed by a mod) and compress them with makecab. You can use a key from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechn...oy/wpadepl.mspx.

Edited November 27, 200619 yr by Bezalel