[Ironhelix]

ok, here's the deal. I bought my computer from a friend and had troubles with my internet connection, and i thought it could've been my PC messin up. The computer had winxp when he sold it to me but it had win98 preinstalled when he first received it. he lost the winxp cd and key. so i used my win98 Se cd and reformatted my harddrive and installed win98 back on it. i should have wrote down the winxp product key first but i didn't. then i find out that there was nothing wrong with my OS but instead my phone line was screwd up. So now i want to install winxp back on it with a copy that someone else let me borrow. Is there anyway i can find my winxp product key on my computer while running win98? note that it did have xp on it before i installed 98. is it possible to pull up old product keys from older OS's while running a totally different OS? or will i have to buy it?

Edited by Ironhelix, 26 December 2007 - 07:07 PM.

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You might try Belarc Advisor (free) to see if it will pull up your old Win XP key. If you have ever saved your Win XP Registry to a disk, you might search it for the key. Other then that, you may have to call Microsoft and explain your situation. If you can provide the info they will require, you may get a new key or buy one cheaper then a new Win XP CD.

Ron

[Major Payne]

You might try Belarc Advisor (free) to see if it will pull up your old Win XP key. If you have ever saved your Win XP Registry to a disk, you might search it for the key. Other then that, you may have to call Microsoft and explain your situation. If you can provide the info they will require, you may get a new key or buy one cheaper then a new Win XP CD.

Ron

[Neil Jones]

You can only get an XP key when XP is installed.
Now you've wiped the machine, the only key you'll get a Win98 one which will not work when you set up XP.
Unfortunately unless you can prove you owned the previous XP licence, you'll have to shell out for a new one.