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| Thread ID: 75850 | 2007-01-12 08:25:00 | Upgrading laptop hardware and reloading Windows XP | geois (11765) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 515220 | 2007-01-12 08:25:00 | Hi All, I have an ASUS laptop, which is very nice, but I'm beginning to wish I had a larger hard drive and more RAM. My laptop came preinstalled with Windows XP Pro, packaged on a couple of restore disks that also contain the drivers and some-such. I have two questions: firstly, if I upgrade my RAM and hard drive, will I be able to reload Windows XP Pro from my restore disks, or do I need to get a full copy of XP Pro? Secondly, if I have a full copy of XP Pro, can I use the serial number on the sticker on the base of my laptop to activate my full copy of Windows following my upgrade. I'm really not interested in upgrading to Vista, I'm quite happy with XP. Cheers, Geois. |
geois (11765) | ||
| 515221 | 2007-01-12 09:04:00 | Hi Geois, and welcome to PressF1. To answer your first question, you should be able to restore your system using the Restore Disks provided by Asus. Otherwise, if you do have a fully copy of XP sitting around, you can use the serial number on the bottom of the laptop. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 515222 | 2007-01-12 09:20:00 | if you do have a fully copy of XP sitting around, you can use the serial number on the bottom of the laptop. I'm fairly sure you can't use an OEM key with a retail disk. You should be able to use your restore CDs, or ghost your old hard drive onto your new one. If activation fails, just use the telephone method & they will give you an activation key. |
Greven (91) | ||
| 515223 | 2007-01-12 10:40:00 | i completely fail to comprehend why you would need to reload windoze if you upgrade the ram. It should have NO effect whatsoever on the operating system you NORMALLY NEVER need to do any reinstallation of operating system when you upgrade ram. Also if you want a larger harddrive just purchase one at a reputable computer REPAIR store, (not just noel leemings etc) and get them to IMAGE the old drive onto the new one.......again there should be NO particular reason why you would need to reinstall windoze if you do that.........you MIGHT have to 'reactivate' windoze but this is a very simple online or telephone process and has nothign to do with reinstalling the operating system | drcspy (146) | ||
| 515224 | 2007-01-12 11:45:00 | The two posts above are correct. You cannot use an OEM (preinstalled) CD Key on a full version. There will be no need to do so anyway, the OEM version is only locked to the motherboard, not the RAM or HDD. |
the godfather (11663) | ||
| 515225 | 2007-01-12 12:01:00 | Of course you can, done it hundreds of times. I always (well a lot of the time) installed XP from a full cd and used the serial attached to the system. Sure as hell wasn't going to do a fresh install on somebodies PC with a pre-sp1 version of XP just because thats what was sitting on their recovery partition, Take far too long to bring it up to current state. Though having said that I should really format my laptop and install XP off my boxed CD.....just to prove im correct.......:badpc: |
Metla (12) | ||
| 515226 | 2007-01-12 12:03:00 | hmmm...22 posts? | Metla (12) | ||
| 515227 | 2007-01-12 19:24:00 | i completely fail to comprehend why you would need to reload windoze if you upgrade the ram. It should have NO effect whatsoever on the operating system you NORMALLY NEVER need to do any reinstallation of operating system when you upgrade ram. Also if you want a larger harddrive just purchase one at a reputable computer REPAIR store, (not just noel leemings etc) and get them to IMAGE the old drive onto the new one.......again there should be NO particular reason why you would need to reinstall windoze if you do that.........you MIGHT have to 'reactivate' windoze but this is a very simple online or telephone process and has nothign to do with reinstalling the operating system Umm... (s)he's replacing the HDD, so he doesn't really have a choice here. In any case, I interpreted "Full disk" to mean a proper WinXP disk, rather than recovery, and not specifically "retail" copy, as I can say that I have successfully installed WinXP using an OEM CD with a laptop key. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 515228 | 2007-01-12 20:20:00 | All you ever needed to know regarding versions and keys. If it was preinstall with a "golden key" or "Royalty OEM" (HP, Dell et al) then it should not work, this change is reasonably recent (2005) however. www.edbott.com |
the godfather (11663) | ||
| 515229 | 2007-01-12 20:22:00 | hmmm...22 posts? Yes, well when you get locked out for not spending enough on a Christmas present for Jen, you have to re-register. |
the godfather (11663) | ||
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