XP Recovery CD

[Std Speed]

Way back when I knew no better, I bought my computer from a major manufacturer. It was not supplied with a full copy of XP home but a recovery CD (thankfully never yet needed).

I now want to upgrade my CPU and motherboard. Will I be able to install XP from the recovery CD or will I need to buy a full (OEM) copy ?

[nwaflygirl]

This should help you out, quite a bit of good info:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

I've done it a few times myself, but had the original CD. Good Luck!

[Background Noise]

Since he owns the licence for XP (as certified on the XP sticker somewhere on the PC) is it legal for him to repair or reinstall from any other xp disc - like a mate's disc? This has been touched on before and that seems to be the accepted view.

[FunkyMunky]

I may be toeing the line here (apologies if I am) but I've always wondered; If you have the license to use XP, is it "legal" to download a copy should you break your disc/feed it to the fish/sit on it etc? Or what about copying a friends...Does the XP License apply to the disc itself, or just a right to use your edition of the software? :confused:

[GolfWhiskeyKilo]

As far as I am aware, with regard to licencing its just that. The CD doesnt matter...However - if you have an OEM key (on the sticker on the machine) you need an OEM CD (normally, in my experience) and if a retail key (yellow sticker on a manual/booklet in the box), a retail CD.

Just a thought worth thinking about.

WK

[nwaflygirl]

Thats a good question. I wonder also. Wouldn't it be possible to just copy it yourself, before the upgrade? Burn it to a CD or even floppy discs would work. I could swear I saw this same topic on Microsoft's web site recently. I do remember someone stating it takes 5 discs. Seems pretty easy to do it that way. Then you can avoid downloading your hundreds of updates when you reinstall. This was a MAJOR pain in the you know what last time I reformatted, and this was about a year ago. There has had to of been 35 or so more updates since then!

As for using your friends disc, the only problem with that, is unless it came from a store, (not the computer manufacturer)
it won't work on your machine. The Op systems usually come with the computer, therefore rendering it useless to anyone who doesn't have the exact same make, model, and brand.

But, if you have a Dell Dimension 4000, or whatever, same CPU, RAM, MHz, and they match exactly, I say use someone else's disc. Why not?