A New Guy
New Member
I have just installed a new motherboard a few days ago and had received a message yesterday that I must reactivate Windows in 3 days (2 days now). My computer originally was a 5 year old emachines, model T6212. Because of this, Windows XP was pre-installed on my computer when I got it. I do not currently have the installation disk, recovery disk, or any other disk for my computer. However, about 6 months ago, I needed to reformat my hard drive. Since I had no disk, I just took another Windows XP Professional disk that another of my computers was using, and used it to reformat my hard drive. I used the same product key, and ever since it has been working for the past 6 months under the same product key. Since I now have to reactivate Windows, now that I know a little more about computers, I'm worried that if I call in to reactivate Windows using the same product key that is currently used on both computers, I may not be reactivated. I have the COA key on the back of the upgraded computer that I need to reactivate. Also, when booting into Windows I see that I have a choice of which operating system I want to boot into; Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Professional. This came about directly after I reformatted my hard drive. I have always used the first option, never the second. I also checked what the product key my computer was using through certain software I downloaded, called RockXP. I only checked on the first option. I am unsure why there are two options. Do I currently have two Windows XP Professionals installed on my computer, one OEM and one retail that is also used on another computer? If so, how do I go about reactivating my Windows XP Professional? Also, my old motherboard used to have two IDE slots, one for my hard drive and one for my dvd and cd drives. My new motherboard has only 1. Currently, my hard drive is using the IDE slot and I had purchased an IDE controller card for a PCI slot. My DVD drive and CD drive are hooked up to it. However, neither my DVD nor CD drive work. I think it is because I have to install drivers for my PCI Controller. Unfortunately, the Windows standard doesn't work and the driver disk that came with the PCI controller obviously can't be read, since the DVD drive does not work. As a result, I cannot insert any disk to install any OS. For some reason, when booting up my computer, there is an option to install a RAID utility, and after about 30 seconds of not pressing anything, it brings me to a screen that shows two drives; Drive 0 and Drive 1. Next to Drive 0, there is a whole bunch of random letters, but in the middle it has DVD/CD. Next to Drive 1, it just has random letters. I assume that this means the computer is recognizing that my dvd/cd drive is connected to the motherboard, but I can't use it because I have not installed the PCI controller drivers. However, my USB drive works. I had tried to copy all the information from the driver disk to USB and then put it on my computer. In the readMe, it says that in order to install it on a computer with an existing XP, I need to wait for the "Found New Hardware" wizard to come up. I then need to go through the recommended installation, install the diskette into the computer, then hit next when a pop-up comes up asking if I want to look in A://. Unfortunately, I do not have a floppy disk drive. I tried manually installing what was on the driver disk through my USB, but it said it couldn't find any useful drivers. I then tried downloading the drivers from the company's website, but when I try, to brings me to a new website that doesn't have the drivers I need. Therefore, I have no idea how to get my dvd drive to work, so I haven't completely installed the motherboard drivers through the dvd drive yet. I have copied everything to USB, run "DVDDisplay", and then clicked on drivers for my chipset and they installed. However, VGA and RAID are shaded out, and Processor either takes a very long time or does not do anything. I installed the network drive manually. Also, before putting in my new motherboard, I uninstalled EVERYTHING that related to my new motherboard to the slightest detail, including firewire, Network, ATI IDE, and even my Nvidia Graphics card that was just on my motherboard, which I added just months ago. After reinstalling my graphics card, I got a pop-up saying that I made too many hardware configurations and I need to reactivate Windows. Now I have no idea what I should do. I cannot even get a new OS on my computer because my DVD drive doesn't work (I presume because I cannot use my DVD drive to install the driver disk for the PCI controller). I am, however, unsure if I can install a new OS through a USB drive. I do not even know how to do this if I can. Now that you know everything about what happened, is there anything I can do to keep my new motherboard, reactivate windows, and get my DVD drive to work again? If not, would I be able to just put back my old motherboard, CPU, and RAM? Would this allow me to use my DVD drive again and avoid having to reactivate Windows, if I currently cannot because of the product key used on two computers and the fact that my system was OEM before this? Also, since I uninstalled EVERYTHING related to my old motherboard, would I need to first download all of my motherboard drivers, if they still exist, from my manufacturer, eMachines? I am completely lost in what to do next, and now I have only two days to reactivate Windows before my computer becomes completely and utterly useless without a DVD drive that Windows can use. Also, when turning on my computer, I don't even see any indication that my motherboard even has BIOS. If I have to install BIOS, how would I go around doing this? Once again, I am completely lost and any help that you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Even if it means I have to get rid of my new upgrades, I want to at least bring my computer back to the way it was before I upgraded, in a nice, working condition. If I were to put everything physically back on my computer the way it was and then use system restore to a point BEFORE I uninstalled everything related to my old motherboard, would this completely fix my problem and allow me to use Windows without having to reactivate it? I am very worried about reactivating, because I have no idea what could happen. I greatly appreciate any help you can give me on this matter.
