hi, i have sinisters pc in front of me that did have vista on, but originally had xp media centre. as her sister has done a fine mess of the computer (thinking she was helpful) i have tried to reinstall xp home with a legit copy, however the product key for it has been used on my laptop and the product key on the side of her pc comes up as not valid. is there anywhere i can buy just the product key without having to buy the disc again etc?

What cd are you using?

If it's a retail CD and an OEM product key they won't work together

The product key on the PC will be for Media Centre Edition if that was the OEM operating system. Do you not have a recovery disc for Media Centre?

Regards

use the product key off your laptop,failing that phone microsoft and tell them you cant activate your windows and they will give you a one off activation code over the phone,give them your code off your laptop if asked

no all this was lost by her sister, the back up, the recovery disc the product key, yes everything. what ive done is used the product key that came with the disc and hope that the one on the bottom of my laptop was used when i bought the disc last xmas (if you remember the problem i had with the laptop) if it turns out i have used the same product key for both then i will just delete the lot off my laptop and put linux on it.

You should be able to get the recovery discs from the HP web site. Not sure on cost though or how long it will take.

cheers, ive phoned up the windows hotline entered the code off the computer and they have given me a new code. if it turns out in 30 days my laptop (which i think has the same product code) goes tits up i will have to contact advent for a new oem disc for my one and then use the oem product code on the bottom of my laptop. just wished we had the xp media centre disc and then i could have used the product key stuck to the side of sinisters pc.

What exactly had been done to the machine?

Nothing is unfixable, and the start again option really should be last resort. I'm sure we can all help both here and via IM if necessary, or even remote support requests through messenger

To reload MCE you will need the mediacenter media, this is very different to normal XP as it comes on 2 CD's.

its got xp home on it now as sinister only needs it for email and internet. does entering this new code i got from microsoft affect any other computer its been on? i.e. my laptop?

its got xp home on it now as sinister only needs it for email and internet. does entering this new code i got from microsoft affect any other computer its been on? i.e. my laptop?

No , not at all.

cheers!!

If the machine boots you can get the key with this

ProduKey - Recover lost product key (CD-Key) of Windows/MS-Office/SQL Server

If it's normal XP some keys only work if you have the install disc with SP2.

I re-installed XP on someones PC who had the XP licence key stuck on the side of the PC.

Used 1 disc that I had from when XP was first launched and the key on the side of the machine wouldn't be recognised.

Used another disc that had the SP2 and it accepted the licence key number.

Also copied and sent an SP2 disc to a friend who needed to reinstall Windows as she didnt have a CD but had a licence key (again on the side of the tower) which worked fine.

So if you have a key just download the image or get someone to send a CD.

sinisters pc was working fine last night, however today you turn it on and you can here the harddrive twirling but not getting anywhere, occasionly if you turn it back off and on it will boot while others it wont any ideas whats happening?

ive got to do my vista machine in a while revert back with a recovery to day one as something in the past few months (refer to previous post about deleting stuff)has buggered up my vista laptop so as you can guess im rather peed off with computers. might just buy a webbook as i only ever use net and email and same for sinister.

If you have the latest version of Windows update installed (XP SP2 or better) then you are given the option to buy a new licence key direct from Microsoft online, but you will pay more than you can get an OEM one from Overclockers or SCAN for.

it all seems to be fine and have sp3 on it.