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lost my windows xp disk


wezo
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I will stand correcting by one of the experts if I am wrong. I believe that you can install from a friends borrowed CD as long as you know your own registration key to enter. Don't do this until one of the experts confirms it. Best of luck.

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You can do as andsome suggests provided that the version on the disk you are loading from is the same as the version for which you have the product key.

Thanks for that, I thought that I was right. Do you enter the number on the actual disc in use during the install, and then register with the computers own key? Or do you enter the computers own key when asked during the install? this is where I get confused. I would like to know, just in case I ever have to help out a friend.

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No. There will be a short code on the disk that identifies which version of Windows it is. This has to match the relevant part of the 25 digit Product Key but not the whole of that key.

Put simply, the Windows disk will contain the code something like: "I am Windows XP Home Edition SP2 Upgrade". To load fully the product key must contain, as part of its code, a matching sequence. The code only takes up a small part of the full Product Key, the remainder is unique to the key and, when loaded fully into the proceeding installation, becomes part of that Windows setup.

The details of the way this is done is one of the deep secrets of Mr Gates.

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I think we could possible be at cross purposes here. Say a friend wants me to reinstall Windows and they don't have a full installation disk as I do. Part way through the installation it will ask me to enter a number in several parts. Is the the number as on my installation disk/or the number that the reseller attached to the computer when he sold it? For example. The number that I enter when installing my CD back onto my computer is PCHXD QFF7C **** **** **** . Do I enter this number whan using my disk on their computer, or the number on the side of their computer on the little MS label?

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