[MonikaJ]

I have a laptop I bought at a yardsale. I would like to reinstall windows, but I have no XP cd. And I'm not sure how to find my license key. I have no impotant data I need to save.Can u help? Im hoping this is something I can do safely. Please advise.

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Hi MonikaJ

We need a little more info to help you.
Is the laptop bootable?
Can you get in to windows now?
What is the make and model?
XP home or XP Pro?

Is there a particular reason you want to re-install?

There might be a recovery partition on the drivr that can be used instead of a CD,

[123Runner]

Hi MonikaJ

We need a little more info to help you.
Is the laptop bootable?
Can you get in to windows now?
What is the make and model?
XP home or XP Pro?

Is there a particular reason you want to re-install?

There might be a recovery partition on the drivr that can be used instead of a CD,

[MonikaJ]

Thank you for replying so quickly! I want to reinstall XP because, although it seems to work ok, (I am using it now), it has afew glitches.It's slower than it should be, and sometimes,(quite often), it takes forever to respond to for example, closing a window, or ending a program. I once went to run defrag, and I couldn't because it gave me a message that said chkdsk was getting ready to run. (?) I later ran the defrag tool, and have 57% free space, but no improvement in performance. I would love to just start all over. That would also delete every scrap the previous owner's (Deano...) stuff. That would make me very happy. I've already removed a ton of programs he had installed. I conveniently found the product key when I was getting the info you requested. It's WinXP Home Edition (Midern), Notebook Computer Model M54N. It has another Model no that says Model M540BAT-6. Im not sure why it wouldnt be bootable..? please explain. Thanks again, Monika

[phillpower2]

Hi there MonikaJ,
You seem to be getting confused here with your product keys.
What you are looking for is 5 sets of 5 numbers and letters,
something like this M9PHB-X8QG9-2JKX3-TQJ8C-RKQ7D (one of my
old product keys)these are for windows products not computer
hardware products, anyhows you can use this freeware to find
your windows product key http://www.magicalje....com/keyfinder/

[MonikaJ]

thats the same kind of product key that was on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop. 5 sets of 5 numbers/letters.

[ohsnap]

Now you just need to find a CD.

I've had no luck finding an unaltered XP Home SP3 iso online, without dabbling into illegal territory.

I, too, have my product key on hand.

Edited by ohsnap, 02 August 2010 - 02:34 PM.

[MonikaJ]

I'm looking at the Malware and spyware cleaning guide. Thank you! Do I runs those steps exactly in that order?

[MonikaJ]

So if I borrowed one from a friend, would that work?(an actual WinXP CD , I mean.)

[Fenor]

I would just like to note, that Hewlett Packard XP CD's usually accept any valid key when installing. The only catch is that it won't activate automatically over the Internet, and will make you have to call and talk to the mechanical lady to activate it, but you should have no problem activating it. So if you have a friend/family member that has an HP computer with XP and has their XP CD from HP, ask them if you can borrow it.

[phillpower2]

Yes, as long as it is the same version or higher, for example if the
one that is installed is the home edition you can use the same or XP
Pro but not the other way around.

[MonikaJ]

Thank you very much. I just have one more question. OHSNAP stated that he couldnt find an unaltered version of WinXP SP3 online. My question is this: Is WINDOWS 7 like WinXP, in the way that you can only put it on two computers? I ask because my son bought a brand new laptop recently that has WINDOWS 7 on it, but no CD came with it either. And if so, can you possibly find an unaltered copy of WINDOWS 7 online? And would that be a viable option in your opinion? I mean, can I use his product key, provided I could find WINDOWS 7? Then my computer should be the only other computer to use the product key, since he bought his at Best Buy brand new.

[ohsnap]

So if I borrowed one from a friend, would that work?(an actual WinXP CD , I mean.)

Yes, but if you have XP Professional, you need to make sure that CD is for XP Professional.

Same goes for XP Home.


You have to download the newer Service Pack (through Windows Update), if it isn't already SP3.