Hi, I was just given an older PC. I repaired it and it has a genuine windows xp pro on it. I don't have the CD all I have is the key. The windows installation is all messed up. I have other xp pro cd's but the key won't work. Anyone knows how to do either a repair install without the key, or how else to do this???
how to repair a xp pro without the CD
- Thread starter agapetos
- Start date
There are a few things to repair a mess without a repair install you can try like using a valid system restore point to go back as far as possible, run the "sfc /scannow" command at the Run prompt to have the system file checker validate system integrity and repair/replace a limited amount of system files, and manually expand any files needed at the recovery console. As far as even attempting a repair install with the original installation disk "forget it"! You would have to wipe the current to use a disk you have to see a new installation go on.
brinky2006
New Member
If you check out the website of the make of the PC, it may tell you how to enter a 'recovery console', thus being able to return the PC's settings back to factory settings.
What make and model is the PC, I may be able to give you details
Adam
What make and model is the PC, I may be able to give you details
Adam
It's an old gateway Pentium 3....but the thing was that the hdd was pretty bad. I got all the files restored, but many were still corrupted. I did the scf scannow right away, but it didn't really do anything. So what I did was to use my key changer, but it won't allow me to use any other key than those that comes with it, which I can't of obvious reasons. I am installing from my own CD right now, and I gotta find a way to get the key changed to the key that came with the PC. Any suggestions? Also, the problem was that the key showed up as non-genuine and I know it is genuine. I have a 5 user license for my cd I bought, and 2 of them all of a sudden showed up as not genuine...I was upset and called MS, which are trying to help me. Then I re-installed windows for other reasons(bad motherboard) and now the windows had success in validating itself.....I checked for bugs in every way
and found nothing....could it have been a virus, yet unknown that makes some of my PCs show up as not genuine and some are? They all use the same license key......anyway, the restore points were corrupted too, and some of the Norton crap couldn't get uninstalled so I decided to do a new install.
any help appreciated.
and found nothing....could it have been a virus, yet unknown that makes some of my PCs show up as not genuine and some are? They all use the same license key......anyway, the restore points were corrupted too, and some of the Norton crap couldn't get uninstalled so I decided to do a new install.
any help appreciated.
Without the original disk that came with the system any other will appear as invalid automatically due to the product id being looked for. To get around this you will have to remove the current installation in order to use another valid full install version of Windows. It's not a virus but product verification that is the problem being seen.
The sfc or system file checker was simply an effort to repair/replace if possible any corrupted or missing system files. But without the original disk to further repair the current a wipe of the drive and fresh installation with a different copy of Windows will be needed. You can't get around the first installation's need for the original disk. If you had the disk and no product key you would then buy a license in order to use that cd. But the current installation is bound to the original disk.
The sfc or system file checker was simply an effort to repair/replace if possible any corrupted or missing system files. But without the original disk to further repair the current a wipe of the drive and fresh installation with a different copy of Windows will be needed. You can't get around the first installation's need for the original disk. If you had the disk and no product key you would then buy a license in order to use that cd. But the current installation is bound to the original disk.