[Help] Which Version of XP Home

[Littlebr00k]

I am trying to repair an old Dell Inspiron 2500 who's HD has fried for a friend. Needless to say he doesn't know where his repair disks are and didn't create the recovery disk from the hidden partition. No problem I thought as I have access to CD's for the OEM, VL and retail disks of XP home, I would use one of these disks on the new HD and use the CD key on the sticker of the laptop for the product key. But no matter which CD I use the Product key on the sticker is not accepted.

Do Dell do something different to their pc's / CD's so only the originals can be used?

There is no way of extracting the info from the old HD as it is not recognised via the bios or when put in a 2.5 drive caddy connected to another pc, the drive motor doesn't even spin!

Also if any help in deciphering which version of XP home needs to be used the sticker on the laptop is green on the left going into purple.

Thanks for any advice / info.

[prx984]

dell (like many other companies) buys versions of windows with theyre own cd key, they keys cant be used on any other computer than a dell. your best bet, is to buy a copy of xp home from dell.

i have 3 dell laptops, 2 with theyre own oem version of XP, 1 runs 98. i cant use these version of xp on any other computers, but on all the dells they run and install and activate.

[Takeshi]

This thread gives you some idea what a manufacturer specific OEM CD is all about.

And have a look at other old posts on DELL, OEM etc.

[T D]

OEM keys can only be used w/OEM cds. And a dell reinstall disc was provided by ur manufacturer so it's OEM.