I need help! I have moved my office and have just realized that I have lost my XP professional disk. Let's just say I am not sure if the disk I had was the original, or a copy of the original. Is there a way to burn a copy from my harddrive and retrieve the reg #'s? Can anyone recommend a way to get a disk without telling me I need to go repurchase it? Thanks!!!
IF you have the product key then you should be able to use any Windows Professional CD. See if any of your friends or neighbors use Windows XP Pro and burn a copy of it. The product key should be on a sticker somewhere on the PC tower or the bottom of a laptop. If you do have the sticker but no one you know has a XP Pro CD I can burn one for you. But I will only do it if you have a product key. Randy
I do have a sticker on the bottom of my laptop but its for XP Home edition. A friend was the one that upgraded me to XP Pro, because he thought it was better. I can not find either disk. Can I use the XP home key with the XP pro disk, if I get one? Thanks - Traveler
Space, I checked out usenet and see you have to join, thats no biggie as it looks like a really cool site. Question is, are you implying that I can find the software and possible key code somewhere in there? Just wanted to know before I decided to join. Thanks - T
Software - yes. Key - maybe. You should read up on what else you need - Newsleecher, Newzbin, etc. - in conjunction with Usenet. It's a great site but should only be used for legal purposes. :mrgreen:
Traveler, You did not say what kind of PC you had? If it's an HP or Dell or one of those, your disk was proprietary with drivers for that paticular system. Getting a copy may not help if you reloading the whole OS. You may be searching for drivers and patches if you get just a copy of XP pro. If it is one of "those" they have a directory on the hard drive where you can burn a CD from with the OS and the drivers. List the model here and I can direct you to a link for directions. DDR Dan
ddrdan - 1) is a Gateway desktop (came with ME) upgrade XP pro with 'that' disk 2) is an HP laptop (came with XP home) upgraded via 'that' disk 3) is an HP desktop (came wtih XP home) not upgraded yet - That is why I need 'that' disk. All computers are networked and I am just anal enough that I want them all on the same OS. Both sys that are on XP Pro are SP2. Am waiting for a disk/key which is in 'process' - so I am hoping that will solve my anal issue. Not reloading entire OS (at least not right now) but I know if sys crash that will be a problem as I will need the proprietary disks/drivers. So if you could still point me in the right direction (in case of future need) that would be greatly appreciated!! Traveler
Your upgrading 3 units with the same disk. Like ROM said, can't give you a disk for illegal copies. No big diff between XP pro and XP Home. If you want all 3 on the same OS change the 2 HP's back to Home and buy a new XP Home for the gateway. That's your cheapest way out and you have a CD for all 3.
I am not asking, nor have I asked anyone for illegal copies of anything, I am just trying to work out my 'lost disk' problem the least expensive way possible. Also, why would I need to make 'copies' of a disk in order to upgrade 3 home computers, I would just use the same disk, right? Let me just get one thing straight - am I correct from your answer that if I legally have the software and I have 3 computers at home (all networked home computers) that I am not supposed to do that? You mean I need to pay 3 times for the same software? God no wonder Bill Gates is so rich and that must be why Devlock pushes Linux? This is all gray to me??? Guess I am a bit naive if that is the case, as I assumed that if I paid for it and was using it for my personal computers that was kosher? I have lots of friends with more then 1 computer in their home same as me, I have never purchased more then one copy of any software nor have I known any of them to purchase more then one copy of software?
If I am understanding correctly..... Yes you need to have an individual copy of Windows XP for each PC. You CAN use the same Windows CD but you have to have 3 different product keys, one for each system. It is like this because you have to Activate Windows XP withing 30 or else it will lock you out of your system. And when you call to activate the product they will ask you if that software is installed on any other system. If you are truthful and say yes they won't activate it but would be more than happy to either sell you another copy or sell you a volume liscence agreement. CDRW and DVDRW technology is really what you have to thank for that. With people burning software left and right now days companies are just trying to protect themselves. That is why you can buy software, open it and then try to return it to the store. They figured that if you opened it you burned it and now are trying to return the original to get your money back. Not saying that this is what you are or have been doing but there hs been many a poeple that have.
Well I guess if that is the case then I am guilty to the extent that I share with myself between my own computers. I can also say that I have never bought software, copied it and tried to take it back to the store, nor have I gotten friends to copy what they had and taken it home to use it, that is why I didn't take anyone up on here that offered a copy, as I thought it was odd someone would offer it. Anyway, all is good as I already bought an XP upgrade off ebay and am awaiting its arrival. Thanks for the explaination of the licensing thing, again no wonder Gates is so rich!!!!!! I still think there should be a clause that if you buy it for personal use and you have more then one personal computer, it should be OK. But, I guess thats why I am just a small fish in the ocean. :cry:
I'm sorry if I upset you with the "illegal copy" note. I wasn't aware that you did not know. I run into so many people who do know and want a way around it that it's hard to tell. If you want all 3 with the XP pro it's cheaper to buy 1 CD and then just additional product key licenses. It's around $75 per additional license. Instead of buying XP Pro you should really buy the new XP 2005 media center version, it's the same price as XP Pro???
Thanks ddrdan - long time to post reply, sorry! Yep checked out media after I got the xp disk, so will wait a few months b4 upg to that.
