Voltageman Posted August 29, 2006 CID Share Posted August 29, 2006 Well I managed to drop my XP Pro disk one too many times, and now it will not read(took a nice chunk out of it..concrete floors... )...I can't find my backup disk that I thought I had burned...I purchased the OEM copy seperately after building my pc. I have read that if you have and OEM copy, and you have the COA sticker, you can legally install using any XP Pro disk(since the sticker is the license..which I have in my possession)....Is this true? Microsoft wants $40+ for shipping...I'm not sure what shipping company they use... I really don't want to spend $40 for a cd I already own...Can I download an ISO from a Bit Torrent legally, since I do own a license? Just wondering if I will run into problem using another XP disk with my key...Normally I have to call the morons at microsoft to activate my install every freakin time...I can see them giving me a problem. They always grill me about how many pc's I installed on(1 and only 1) and where I got the copy..They pretty much make you feel like you stole the piece of crap...I swear the way they run things there, I truly feel it would be less of a hassle to use an illegal copy...Last time I activated it, it took 50 minutes for the guy to give me the numbers..He would give me one set, then go silent for 15 minutes..He didn't even say anything like "hold on a sec"...just went silent...I was rather pissed off.. Sorry Microsoft always causes me to break into a rant.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igarek77 Posted August 30, 2006 CID Share Posted August 30, 2006 Hey Voltageman, I think that the key that you have will not work with another XP disk. I wouldn't try to get an illegal copy of XP because it might have other crap that's added to it from whoever compiled the ISO. In addition to that any security updates that are going to come out you're not going to be able to get because the Windows Genuine verification installs into the machine before any update can get into your PC. Unless you're going to get the crack for that WGA verification, you're always going to have trouble with the updates. There are a lot of places where all the updates can be downloaded illegaly, but again why bother when with a legit CD of XP, they download ligally..lol Why can't you just reinstall the OEM copy that you have? Doesn't it have it's own key? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disturbed Posted August 30, 2006 CID Share Posted August 30, 2006 ive used same cd key with multiple copies of windows xp without any problems (....back ups of my original one) - i honestly do not see any bad in downloading a copy of windows xp if you already own the license for the product - your cd got damaged...oh well - you bought a license to use a product, not a license to use the cd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlewis23 Posted August 30, 2006 CID Share Posted August 30, 2006 Voltageman if you have a oem sticker on the side of your computer you can use any XP disk aslong as its of the same build of xp that works with that cd-key on the oem sticker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholla Posted August 30, 2006 CID Share Posted August 30, 2006 I read this on XP since I don't have XP I can't check.Some versions install an i386 folder.This is supposed to contain the OEM install if it's there.I think if it is you can copy it to a CD.It probably has a setup.exe . This may be on computers using a ghost or restore disk that came with their computer . So Voltageman try a search for that.& would some more of those with XP try the search & let me know what they find.If this is bad information then I don't want to be giving it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voltageman Posted August 31, 2006 Author CID Share Posted August 31, 2006 Thanks guys... I finally said @#$! it, and upgraded to x64 XP... Actually works better than I thought it would..So far only a few odd errors, but then again, reg XP pro had its share of them.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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