ahh sorry i got the wrong end of the stick, i thought he built a new pc and wanted to use the OEM from the unit its replaced, not using his own active copy from his pc to run on a 2nd pc, my bad !
ahh sorry i got the wrong end of the stick, i thought he built a new pc and wanted to use the OEM from the unit its replaced, not using his own active copy from his pc to run on a 2nd pc, my bad !
Dont worry.
With love and many thanks,
Melons
Are you sure I cant just use a mates copy and the serial from an old computer? He has a full version.
With love and many thanks,
Melons
Okay, now I've really messed up. It wont let me boot from the cd drive (I'm guessing its f12 like on my computer), it keeps trying to boot from the oem copy I tried to instal. Help?
With love and many thanks,
Melons
Set the first boot device as CD drive in BIOS, press any key to boot from CD when prompted, and finally stop trying to use a copy Windoze illegally - it's not worth the effort with WGA & all the other associated nonsense.
Sure Linux is an option, but you said you wanted to game on it, so that unfortunately rules it out (unless you like tinkering and using the WineX emulator - which is not free).
Splash out and buy another OEM XP disc.
XP licenses are valid for use on a single computer only. If you have a new computer, and aren't binning an old machine, then you need a new license.
In theory.
The practice is that you won't be able to update EITHER machine, may be blocked from installing it again in future on either machine, and will get an annoying popup all the time telling you what a filthy pirate you are.
Yes, Linux can be free. However, whilst gaming is possible under Linux, it's harder work, and the range of playable games is smaller than Windows.
Not useless per se, but it'd need a new copy of Windows to stop the annoying WGA popups.
Windows licenses are completely non-transferrable between versions (i.e. you cannot use a retail license key for an OEM install, or an SP2 license key for a RTM install, or a French license key for a German install, etc)
It may well not be F12 - it isn't on my laptop. Read the manual.
If your mate has a legit copy and its not being used on his old computer, then install it and when prompted, ring microsoft and tell them the little white lie about the computer being fried by lightning and you have some new parts, they will give you an activation number, it worked for me. I have no problems about telling porkies to microsoft, especially as i bought the software legitimately in the first place. No doubt others will have a different microsoft outlook on this.
Good point
I have to say though, mine is an oem version, bought on the day of release, and i must have used it on half a dozen or more systems of mine over the years, and only the last couple of times have i had to call microsoft and twist the truth slightly.
If it will only work on one computer at a time, whats the point in buying a full version for £170?
With love and many thanks,
Melons
1) technical support - you can ring microsoft for help with the retail version. with OEM, you have to ring your system integrator (dell, evesham, yourself - whoever installed it, essentially)
2) transferrable license - you can move retail XP from one computer to a new computer. OEM licenses are for a single machine (defined by a motherboard), and cannot be transferred to a new machine (i.e. mobo swap) without breaking and invalidating the license. this is not a problem for integrators like Dell who wouldn't support mobo swaps anyway
Okay, I now have a legal copy of xp. what am I suposed to do about partitions? How big should they be?
Last edited by BlindMelon7; 04-10-2006 at 06:08 PM.
With love and many thanks,
Melons
Any size you want. Many folks say you should limit the number of partitions for performance reasons. Personally I have a 200Gb drive partitioned as follows with no evident issues:
30Gb (OS & programs)
100Gb (Games - they get so big these days!)
30Gb (Backup files / patches / updates, etc - if I ever need to re-install)
30Gb (Music files & the odd video)
10 Gb (Pagefile - probably a waste, as 2Gb would have done!)
Obviously the above figures are approximate.
My rationale for doing it this way - if I lose my OS, I don't lose my savegames or the ability to patch my system without serious broadband usage. I used to have an 80Gb and it was 20/20/20/20Gb with no partition for the pagefile. Unfortunately a few years back I was bitten badly by a corrupt OS and lost everything - no more "C:" only for me then
How do u partition ure hard drive without formating or whatever?
With love and many thanks,
Melons
Hope you don`t mind me butting in!
I have installed Windows XP many, many times using my OEM XP CD and the Product ID on the computer I am reinstalling Windows on. I have activated Windows online without any problems. I have used the same CD for both desktops and laptops without issue. I have probably used the same CD to activate Windows on 50+ different machines. Ocassionally I have needed to phone Microsoft but once I explained what I was doing they were happy.
Essentially the product ID is unique, CDs are AFAIK mass produced and identical. I tend to use my own CD rather than the one provided with the machine as it has usually been forgotten, mislaid, or doesn`t contain service packs. I have created my own slipstreamed CD with up-to-date service packs to ease installation.
As far as I know one OEM Windows XP Home CD is the same as any other. I agree that you cannot install a retail, upgrade, pro, etc version of Windows using an OEM disk but I don`t think CDs vary
Or am I wrong? Are Microsoft going to hunt me down and place me in their dungeon at Redmond?????????????????????
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