Windows XP product key not working

ptchernegovski

ptchernegovski

New Member
I found an old desktop in one of my buildings at work, decided to bring it home and make it into an old gaming/browsing desktop. It had no RAM or hard drive in it. So since I had a bit laying around I put in 2 x 256Mb DDR ram cards and a 10Gb IDE drive. Powered it up and found a copied Windows XP Pro disk with SP2 + updates in CD drive. Put disk into laptop and found the product key in the UNATTEND.txt file. The 10Gb had Windows NT on it and a program for work that is no longer in use, so I deleted the partition and set about installing XP off the disk as the other XP disk I have is at work. When it came to the product key I put in the one off the disk it said it was invalid, so I tried the one off the sticker on the side of the case but same problem. Thinking it is because it is a copied disk. Would it work if I use the genuine I have floating around work that is already in use on another PC or will I have to do something else? Don't want to run 7 as it is just a single core and can only take 2Gb max.
Thanks
 
The key has to match whatever OS you are installing. A home premium key won't work on an XP pro install and vice versa. You can't use an OEM key on a retail install or vice versa. Other than that, have you entered the key properly?
 
Yea thought the key that's on the disk in the file would be the right one for it. Guess not. But as it is a copied OS disk that is probably the fault. Definitely entered both keys correctly when tried them. Will just probably try the genuine XP disk I have at work as this worked fine on the computer there I installed it on. But would it work as it is already installed on another PC?
 
You will have to obtain a new copy of XP. The problem being is that its not sold anymore and trying to find a legit copy on ebay may be pretty hard.
 
Yea, have had a look on trademe (NZ site for stuff) and found a couple but still expensive. I still don't understand the difference between OEM copy and retail though.
 
I still can find online retailers selling new XP Disks thru pricewatch.com, but they pretty much cost the same they always did.
 
ptchernegovski said:
Yea, have had a look on trademe (NZ site for stuff) and found a couple but still expensive. I still don't understand the difference between OEM copy and retail though.
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OEM just means all you get is the cd and product key and the OEM can only be installed on one machine and isn't transferrable to a different machine. Also, no support from Microsoft. Retail version comes with support from microsoft and the license is transferrable to another machine.
 
johnb35 said:
OEM just means all you get is the cd and product key and the OEM can only be installed on one machine and isn't transferrable to a different machine. Also, no support from Microsoft. Retail version comes with support from microsoft and the license is transferrable to another machine.
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Ok thanks for that bit of learning johnb :)
will see what version I have at work is, or contact our tech guy in head office to see what he has. If that doesn't work I suppose I could go with 7, but then wouldn't it be a bit stressing on the system as it is only a single core Celeron 2.4Ghz with 2Gb 400Mhz Ram?

Thanks for the pricewatch.com site, will keep an eye on that too.
 
User0one said:
I still can find online retailers selling new XP Disks thru pricewatch.com, but they pretty much cost the same they always did.
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Thats odd considering Microsoft no longer supports XP at all. I believe they stopped that in 2010.

I remember when 7 came out, and I went to walmart and next to the Windows 7 there was XP and they were both the same price. I sat there thinking, wtf?
 
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