Help please: XP for dell

K

keiron

New Member
My home computer has got a virus and i need to wipe out hard drive. Problem is that I can't find the XP disc. I have a XP for my dell laptop but the home computer is Tiny? Any ideas if I can use the dell XP or where I can get a free download of XP? Please help
 
As long as you have your CD key from that machine, and it will work on the version of XP that you wish to install, there is no problem. The legalities of it revolve around you owning your CD key. The disks are all the same and no CD key is tied to any particular disk. You have to ascertain if you have a CD key for XP Home retail, XP Home OEM, XP Home upgrade or the same configuration for XP PRO. If your key does not match the version of your disk then the system will not accept it.

Free downloads of XP do not exist to my knowledge.
 
On the disc it says that it should only be used with a Dell computer. As for the key there is one attached on the computer. Is that what you mean?
 
It will not work on a regular computer. That advice is false.

Microsoft and Dell have a deal for volume licensing. Dell buys a zillion licenses at a time at a discount for licensing on their own PCs only. They then customize the installation to work for their PCs. Back in Windows 98 days and before the Dell Windows came in standard format with a manual and a sticker that says "For Dell PCs only". I used to buy them.

However, with current Dells they no longer do this. They ship with restoration CDs that are able to detect by the motherboard if it is a Dell PC or not. If it isn't, the installation will halt and a notice will pop up.
 
Thats funny SirKenin I had to use my disk several times on other pc's and they were not all dell's maybe its hit and miss depending on which computer it is i dunno...
 
Did you have a restoration CD or a regular install CD? See, part of the reason Dell gets them so cheap is because Microsoft doesn't send them a zillion CDs, just the licenses. Dell presses their own on restoration disks.
 
I just had whatever came with it i'm not sure if it was a restor or regular i bet i just had one of the install's oh well lol!
 
I have used DELL provided CD's on many other computers. They all worked. The customer of course had to have their own CD key to make it legal. The only difference is that you had to put up with Dell branding on an HP machine. Other than that it went fine. Somehow there is this fallacy out there that CD's are tied to the motherboard, BIOS etc. I think there are enough posts above to put that to rest. As far as I am concerned the disks are all the same. The difference is in the CD keys. If anyone wishes to think otherwise then go for it. As far as I am concerned I have proven this point many times as have others.
 
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