[Hidden Mountain]

Greetings Earth People,

I bought a used IBM desktop with, supposedly, Win XP Pro, W/O a start up disk.

We hooked all the goodies up, booted it and got..... "no operating system"

We live way out in the boonies so going back to the computer store is a major trek, so we are hoping to find some answers from you wonderful folks.

My wife, in her enthusiasm, tried to install one from the net but as I'm sure ya'll know, some one wants money for this.

Sooooo, she found Windows 98, and burned it to a disk, stuck it in and promptly came to the end of her abilities.

We now have Windows 98 that we want gone but since she never got past the very initial stage of installing it, it isn't really there.

Now all we want is to get the XP working. I'm not even sure it's even really in there but since I am not a geek in any way shape or form, I am desperately seeking help.

Ifin any of ya'll got any ideers, we'd be most grateful.

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Hello Hidden Mountain.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

First of all you can't load a Win 98 on a system that was originally built on XP. Drivers probably will not exist for it.
Second of all there is no place on the internet to download a Microsoft OS legally so that won't work at all.
Third of all what is the model of your IBM desktop system?
Fourth if you do not have the original recovery disk you would need to contact IBM to try and purchase a recovery cd from them. This should include the original XP with all the drivers for your system. Usually this would be at about 30 to 50 USD.
Fifth There should be a sticker somewhere on the side of the system with the original OS type and registration number. Once you purchase the recovery cd you can use that number to register and activate your XP Pro.

[rshaffer61]

Hello Hidden Mountain.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

First of all you can't load a Win 98 on a system that was originally built on XP. Drivers probably will not exist for it.
Second of all there is no place on the internet to download a Microsoft OS legally so that won't work at all.
Third of all what is the model of your IBM desktop system?
Fourth if you do not have the original recovery disk you would need to contact IBM to try and purchase a recovery cd from them. This should include the original XP with all the drivers for your system. Usually this would be at about 30 to 50 USD.
Fifth There should be a sticker somewhere on the side of the system with the original OS type and registration number. Once you purchase the recovery cd you can use that number to register and activate your XP Pro.

[Hidden Mountain]

Thank you for the reply!

Hello Hidden Mountain.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,

First of all you can't load a Win 98 on a system that was originally built on XP. Drivers probably will not exist for it. This is what I figured but my wife not so much
Second of all there is no place on the internet to download a Microsoft OS legally so that won't work at all.That'll explain that dead end
Third of all what is the model of your IBM desktop system? HP-F2007F3P
Fourth if you do not have the original recovery disk you would need to contact IBM to try and purchase a recovery cd from them. This should include the original XP with all the drivers for your system. Usually this would be at about 30 to 50 USD.I bought this unit from the same store I bought my laptop at, will they be able to use their own recovery CD?
Fifth There should be a sticker somewhere on the side of the system with the original OS type and registration number. Once you purchase the recovery cd you can use that number to register and activate your XP Pro.Yep, we see that little sticker

As I mentioned in my 1st post, my wife stuck an old Win98se CD in it to see if she could get something to work. Now it has 98 on it and I can't even get into DOS to remove it. Any ideas?

[rshaffer61]

The recovery cd will format the system and install the correct OS. Your sticker with the reg key will make everything legal then.
I'm not sure about the company having a recovery cd but that is the legal way to do everything.

[Hidden Mountain]

Thanks again, looks like a trip to town is inevitable.

[123Runner]

The HP-F2007F3P is not a model of the computer, but of the power supply unit.

Since you just bought it AND it was supposed to have an OS on it, the best advise is to return to the store and have them get it functioning with an OS.
Also see if you can get a recovery CD for it. The recovery CD will have the OS, drivers , and software.

This is so you will have everything you need to bring it back to day 1 if you run in to a future problem.

[rshaffer61]

I bought a used IBM desktop with, supposedly, Win XP Pro, W/O a start up disk.

This is why it has no disks

[Hidden Mountain]

First of all, thanks to you all who have helped us.

Well, we managed to find a generic product key for Win 98 and finished installing it. Which is exactly what we DIDN'T want in the first place. Now we need to remove it so we can get back to the blank screen with "No Operating System Found" in the upper left hand corner.

We thought about reformatting the HD but I'm concerned that if the XP OS is still in there, we'll wipe that off too.

Any ideas?

[rshaffer61]

Well the problem is that if you loaded 98 on the system then it most likely formatted the system anyway.
It would have to unless you installed it to a different hd or partition on the hd. If none of this sounds familiar I can almost bet there is nothing else on the drive besides 98 at this point. Second there is no such thing as a generic key for 98. Also as you know you are running a illegal copy of the OS at this point and I cannot assist with issue on it according to the GTG Terms Of Use.

We here at GeeksToGo will not assist you with issues relating to copied, pirated, or in any other way stolen programs. It is a direct violation of our TOS (Terms Of Service) to offer any assistance in this matter.

[Hidden Mountain]

Well the problem is that if you loaded 98 on the system then it most likely formatted the system anyway.
It would have to unless you installed it to a different hd or partition on the hd. If none of this sounds familiar I can almost bet there is nothing else on the drive besides 98 at this point. Second there is no such thing as a generic key for 98. Also as you know you are running a illegal copy of the OS at this point and I cannot assist with issue on it according to the GTG Terms Of Use.

We here at GeeksToGo will not assist you with issues relating to copied, pirated, or in any other way stolen programs. It is a direct violation of our TOS (Terms Of Service) to offer any assistance in this matter.

Agreed! WE REPENT IN DUST AND ASHES!

We never wanted the 98 thing in the first place. My wife, in her enthusiasm, stuck the old 98 disk in to see what would happen. I was out in the back 40 when she did this and only found out about it after the fact. She had no idea what she was doing was illegal since the disk is from our old computer anyway.

As for no generic key, I Go ogled "generic key for win 98" and got a list of keys. I started at the top of the list and bingo, it worked.

Like I said, we don't even want 98 on there. I will be taking this computer back to the store we bought it from and getting them to fix it.

We respect your policy of keeping it legal. Please accept our apologies.

[rshaffer61]

I understand the frustration and if you could just borrow a XP Pro disk from someone then I can guide you through installation of it and drivers for everything.

[Hidden Mountain]

OK then.

Here we are, a couple of weeks later.

We took the IBM back to the store where we bought it and the guys had a look and asked me if we wanted a different one. Well, that solved that! They did a once over on it and for no extra charge. That was nice.

So now that I have it home, the next big challenge has been to transfer the files and "some" settings from the old slug to the new calculator.

Having never done this before, we have had a few tense moments but we seem to be getting it.

Thanks for your the help.

[rshaffer61]

OK what are we talking about transferring over?
Pics, music, videos, data files?

[Hidden Mountain]

(Quote)OK what are we talking about transferring over?
Pics, music, videos, data files?

Yup.

We used a 2 gig flashdrive and have managed to get it moved over in two easy bites.

But we wanted to create a network and just send them over that way. All was going well until we got to the F.A.S.T. and the option for transferring via a network was grayed out. Seemed kind of dumb. After a little digging, I think I figured it out. Could it be because the new computer didn't have the latest XP F.A.S.T. updates?

Anyway, So far so good.....

[rshaffer61]

Do you know what Sp is on the new system?
If not do the following.

Push and hold the Windows key on keyboard. This is the one with the Microsft windows logo on it.
While holding Win key down click on the Pause\Break key

This should open the System properties window
On this window it will show
System info:

Microsoft Windows: type and version
Service Pack number

Registered Name
Register Number

Computer:
CPU type
Memory
I need all the above info in your next reply Except for Register name and number.
This is private and we don't need to know this information