XP Home questions?

[Dark Horse]

The psu on my girlfriends emachines prebuilt computer konked out last week and took the motherboard with it. Everything else seems ok although the windows install is now stuffed and won't boot, hard drive is probably corrupted.

I have salvaged what I can from the HDD but I don't know what the story with Windows is. I want to try formatting and reinstalling windows. Unfortunately XP home came preinstalled on the machine so she doesn't have a windows cd. The authentic cd/activation key is on a sticker on the back of the case so I can I buy an xp home cd from ebay (without an activation key) and then install xp onto it with her key?

[XA04]

You won't be able to boot up from the HDD if you have a tottally different mobo in there..

Microsoft may be able to help you out but I'm not sure - you have a genuine key and no CD so they may be OK with it.. if you registered then they may help you even futher.. worth contacting them anyway.

[explicitlyrics]

Call them, they are often very nice and can help you by sending an install CD. As XA04 said, you will have to install windows while the drive is in her laptop or you will forever have problems with crashing/freezing/drivers/programs/interfaces.....

[BUFF]

Originally Posted by Dark Horse

TThe authentic cd/activation key is on a sticker on the back of the case so I can I buy an xp home cd from ebay (without an activation key) and then install xp onto it with her key?

Normally according to the EULA on OEM you aren't allowed a mobo change (as in upgrade) the only exception being a mobo failure so you should be OK with MS.

[Agent]

Provided you have a legal COA, then your perfectly fine to use a friends disk to install it.
Generaly speaking, MS arnt too fussey these days about activating windows - even with several mobo changes.

[Dark Horse]

Looks like I had better find an xp home cd then! Only got pro here so not much use...

[AD-15]

From what I know, if it comes pre-installed, then it's on a protected partition on the hard drive. That's how it works on my NEC system anyway.

[Toxyturvy]

OK, just to clear up a few bits of misinformation here -

Your emachine will have been supplied with either an "Emachine Recovery cd / dvd" (if its more than a year or 2 old, else most of the newer ones will have the all the software including windows and drivers on a second, hidden partition on the hard drive (all of which can be burnt onto cd via an included utility in windows - "Recovery Disk Creator").

If you machine was supplied with the CD recovery method, (or you have made the disks described above) then just pop this in, it will boot the computer usually into a "Symantec Ghost" recovery software, from here it will just re-image the hard disk (as long as the hdd isnt faulty).

If your Emachine used the "Hard Disk" recovery method (and if the hdd is still working), try tapping F10 key on the keyboard when powering on the unit, this may start the built in recovery program if your lucky.

Now even tho you have replaced the motherboard, all these recovery methods should still work, the worst that will happen is that you will have to "Re-activate" windows once its installed (quick call to M$ will sort this, using the info on the authentiction sticker).

Also, you asked if you could buy a copy of Windows and use the product key supplied, on you PC. This will work as long as you buy whats called an "OEM" copy, (Will usually say on the cd somthing like - "Only to be supplied with a new PC" or something to this effect. - Oh and make sure its the same copy of windows, i.e, you emachine should have been supplied with XP Home Edition.

Hope this helps..