[Dan1887]

Alright I just got an Asus P5ld2-vm mobo for my oem compaq sr1430nx
I know i am gonna need to format the hd and reinstall windows, which leads me to my question. Compaqs come with destructive system recovery discs, which basically means that they format the hd and reinstall the oem windows xp home that is on the discs. Would it be possible to use these discs to do the reinstall on my windows or am i gonna need to get my hands on a copy of an oem copy of xp?

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Lately every recovery cd for compaq's i have looked at has only the software needed to access a hidden partition on the hard drive. There is NOT a windows operating system on the cd.

Another problem with recovery cd's is changing the motherboard make the system think you are trying to install on a different computer. So the install fails. It would be far easier to buy a regular microsoft CD and install from it.

SRX660

[SRX660]

Lately every recovery cd for compaq's i have looked at has only the software needed to access a hidden partition on the hard drive. There is NOT a windows operating system on the cd.

Another problem with recovery cd's is changing the motherboard make the system think you are trying to install on a different computer. So the install fails. It would be far easier to buy a regular microsoft CD and install from it.

SRX660

[Dan1887]

Would an oem version of windows xp home work with the oem serial number (COA) on the side of my system case?

[SRX660]

I use OEM cd's on all my computer builds. OEM's should come with a coa sticker. If they don't i would suspect the seller. Unless your sticker has the 6 sets of numbers/letters on the sticker it will not work. Microsoft may validate a install with a original sticker product key. If there is only 3 sets of numbers and oem behind the first set in the product key microsoft will NOT validate it.

SRX660