I'm putting a new hard drive on my friends gateway computer. I need to install a new copy of XP pro. My friend lost his XP disk so I used a program called productkey v1.35 and wrote down the 25 dig key from the old hard drive that is being replaced. I have my own XP install disk so I was going to use it to install Xp on the new hard drive and then enter the product key from the old drive. When I do it says bad product key. I put the old drive back on and run the XP pro "check system compatibility" it tells me the version of windows is newer than the version of the CD. So I guess I have a old XP install disk and a newer product key. How can I Install XP on the new drive and use my friends product key # I have?
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There are different types of disks for different keys. Basically you have retail, upgrade, oem, and volume disks. You then have service packs which added more keys for each. So you need to make sure you have the right type of disk first and if you slipstream SP3 to the disk you will not have any worries.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
The old hard drive has Windows XP Pro service pack 3. My install disk is Windows XP Pro. I don't think the product key change when you install a service pack. So why doesn't a newer XP pro serial # work with a older XP pro install cd? Ok so slipstream service pk 3 with my old XP pro install cd and make the new cd. Boot up from it install windows and the product key will work? Yes?
Product keys do not change with SP. So SP level has no effect.
The type of key (Retail, OEM, Upgrade) is critical as andrew aj1 stated previously.
Did the PC originally come with XP Pro installed? If so you can use an OEM CD and the product key on COA sticker. PC vendors such as Dell, HP, and Gateway use generic keys for factory installations and those keys will not work with normal OEM CDs.
If XP Pro was not originally installed, your friend may have an illegal VL copy of XP Pro installed.
Maybe it'll be simpler to just clone the hard drive?
Tools like Acronis TrueImage or Ghost can achieve that for you.
I use Acronis for my backups and have cloned a disk to a bigger disk in the past rather than re-install.
http://www.acronis.com.au/
It should work if you deleted the partition, but it will not work if you use an XP pro that has already been regestered on another system.
Consider either contacting HP for a recovery disc or buy a new xp pro cd, your time is nearly up for buying XP pro as Microsft has only extended it's life till March 2009.
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by: DisorganisePosted on 2009-01-13 at 22:50:54ID: 23370517
I think you may need to slipstream a service pack - your CD is probably a non SP version.
Some instructions on how to do so are here:
http://www.theeldergeek.co