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Windows XP Genuine Validation - reinstall OS

Never again

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Posted November 20, 2011 at 2:45PM

Hi

My friend has given me his old dell laptop as he hasn't used it for a couple of years, and it appears to have had a different version of xp installed on it.

It is a dell inspiron 630m with a coe for windows xp home edition on the bottom, but appears to be running windows xp professional and this means that he has got the windows genuine validation message nagging him all the time.

He obviously had a genuine version installed originally, is it easy to uninstall xp pro and restore the original operating system and get rid of the validation nag screen.

I have my own genuine xp cd which I could use if needed, but I dont really want to format the drive as I will then have to try and find all the drivers and will lose the original software installed.

Thank you

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted November 20, 2011 at 2:59PM

is it easy to uninstall xp pro and restore the original operating system and get rid of the validation nag screen.

Yes as you have the number on the sticker

I dont really want to format the drive as I will then have to try and find all the drivers and will lose the original software installed.

the pro and home XP drivers are exactly the same so just back up the drivers to another source before you start. driver backup software

Unfortunately you will need to reinstall any programs.

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buteman

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Posted November 20, 2011 at 3:59PM

Maybe download SIW and it might tell you what the keycode was for the Pro version as he may have got it as an upgrade.

Failing that just install the XP Home version that Fruit Bat /\0/\ has mentioned and when done add the keycode that is on the COA sticker.

If he ever put a new hard drive or anything like that on it it would maybe fail because of that.

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woody

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Posted November 20, 2011 at 4:15PM

Why not just ask your friend for the COA of the XP PRO OS?

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Never again

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Posted November 20, 2011 at 8:02PM

Thanks for the advice

I think I'll take fruitbats advice and go for broke.

The pc has a dell service tag on the bottom and the dell service website has a lot of the drivers, etc available to download so I'll be able to get the drivers and programs from there.

There is no chance my friend has got the new coe as you should see the state of the laptop itself - there are a number of keys missing and he said that it was "playing up" although avg and malwarebytes show it to be clean today - the last time it was used before that was about 18 months ago?

The link to the back up programmes didn't work as the files I downloaded would not open - never mind.

I suppose its best to build on a solid foundation rather that mess about.

Do you think that the best way to reinstall xp home is just to put my cd in and boot from cd and do a windows installation by following the prompts?

I'll have to change they keyboard first as there is no u, del, backspace, h, or x keys lol :-)

Thanks again

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted November 20, 2011 at 8:36PM

Plug in a usb keyboard and see if that keyboard works BEFORE windows boots.

if not go into BIOS and enable USB legacy for dos

then you can set CD as first boot device then do a clean install of windows. unfortunately that will also mean installing all the updates as well

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robinofloxley

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Posted November 20, 2011 at 9:31PM

Did you try the DriverMax (Free) one? Although I would have thought they are all much of a muchness.

Server1 .exe Direct Download

I just ran a fresh backup for myselff and it was fine.

Save somewhere it wont get overwritten during fresh install. eg USB stick or burn to a CD.

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