Windows XP no CD - help?

wippers

wippers

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Gareth
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Hi - I have a new hard drive that I have just plugged into my laptop but I am unable to find my original Windows XP CD. I have the product key on a sticker on the underside of the laptop. Does anyone know where I may be able to get hold of a copy of XP without having to pay for the operating system I already paid for with the computer (pre-installed)? :shrug:

Gareth
 
If you're just upgrading the drive and the old one is still working then cloning it might be the best option. It'll save you having to re-install as well.

Ghost is one of the best known programs but there are quite a few free utilities now, this for instance redobackup.
 
Someone on here was recently selling XP discs for about £20 IIRC

Sorry it was office :$
 
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Back up and restore as suggested above may be a better option as you will need the correct version of xp for the key to work.

What does it actually say on the sticker. Also what make is the pc?
 
The PC is a Sony Viao laptop. My old hard drive is goosed so cannot ghost anything.
I've managed to find an old XP full disc now, but I don't seem to be able to get the laptop to boot from the optical drive in the boot menu. Do I need to do anything with the refurbished new hard drive I've installed first?
 
wippers said:
The PC is a Sony Viao laptop. My old hard drive is goosed so cannot ghost anything.
I've managed to find an old XP full disc now, but I don't seem to be able to get the laptop to boot from the optical drive in the boot menu. Do I need to do anything with the refurbished new hard drive I've installed first?
Click to expand...

Have you set it to boot from the CD Drive in the BIOS?
 
someguy201 said:
Have you set it to boot from the CD Drive in the BIOS?
Click to expand...

This is where the problem seems to be. I can go into the bios screen and see the CD/DVD under "advanced" settings, but under the "boot" settings I can see it but can't change the sequence at all? :shrug:

Under the advanced settings, the CD/DVD drive is set to IDE channel 0 slave. Is this correct?

Is there something that needs doing so the computer can actually read the CD drive? :shrug:
 
Check the BIOS settings, sometimes external devices are disabled for security / bootup speed.

It's been a while but I seem to remember some XP CDs that were not bootable, they were intended for system recovery with the manufactures recovery cd or a hidden partition of the original hdd.

What does it say on the CD? Can you boot from it on the computer you're using to access the internet?
 
wippers said:
This is where the problem seems to be. I can go into the bios screen and see the CD/DVD under "advanced" settings, but under the "boot" settings I can see it but can't change the sequence at all? :shrug:
Click to expand...

Just seen this, I think you may have a security password set. Is there an option to "unlock" security settings? I've seen this on IBM Thinkpads.
 
amjad175 said:
Check the BIOS settings, sometimes external devices are disabled for security / bootup speed.

It's been a while but I seem to remember some XP CDs that were not bootable, they were intended for system recovery with the manufactures recovery cd or a hidden partition of the original hdd.

What does it say on the CD? Can you boot from it on the computer you're using to access the internet?
Click to expand...

When I power up the laptop, it just comes up with "no operating system" and won't even look at the CD drive by the looks of things, regardless of what disc is in it. The bios screen is showing the CD drive but when trying the change the boot sequence, it will let me scroll through the HDD, floppy (not got one though yet it's still in the list:shrug:) and "optical drive", but when I hit enter to change it, nothing happens.

The XP CD is an old copy so has nothing written on it and my only other machine is a MAC so I can't check anything on it. I've also tried a Windows Me disc with the same results.
 
Will it let you bring up the boot menu and select the cd drive that way? The F key for boot menu should be listed in the BIOS, if not try F12 or F10.

Which Sony Vaio is it? This may be a silly question but is [Enter] the correct key to change settings on the Vaio? It may well be but different combinations are used on different systems. +/- , Page Up / Page Down and the space bar etc.
 
I was selling XP discs on here for £20 last month. The thread has been archived, but if you're interested then let me know and I'll reinstate a thread (for clarity's sake). I also have Vista on offer too.
 
amjad175 said:
Will it let you bring up the boot menu and select the cd drive that way? The F key for boot menu should be listed in the BIOS, if not try F12 or F10.

Which Sony Vaio is it? This may be a silly question but is [Enter] the correct key to change settings on the Vaio? It may well be but different combinations are used on different systems. +/- , Page Up / Page Down and the space bar etc.
Click to expand...

It's a Vaio VGN-FS415M. I can get into the boot menu in the bios settings but can't change the sequence to anything but the HDD. The enter key is the right one as it allows me to look at the HDD.
 
amjad175 said:
Will it let you bring up the boot menu and select the cd drive that way? The F key for boot menu should be listed in the BIOS, if not try F12 or F10.

Which Sony Vaio is it? This may be a silly question but is [Enter] the correct key to change settings on the Vaio? It may well be but different combinations are used on different systems. +/- , Page Up / Page Down and the space bar etc.
Click to expand...

google suggests F11 brings up the boot menu on a vaio
 
i think you have to go into the BIOS settings, boot menu then where you see, HDD, DVD, etc press f5/f6 to move it up and down the list so the optical drive goes to top of the list then i think its f10 to save?
 
I can get into the bios screen no problem with F2. I can move around with the arrows and use enter key to change, but when i highlight the optical drive, it doesn't let me change anything.
I've read perhaps that the HDD should be set to master and not slave as this can cause problems but i have no idea whether that is the problem or how to do it as it's different to a PC HDD.

This is what I can see:

Bootscreen.jpg
 
Found an old Windows 98 CD and tried that. Seems to be working as currently formatting the hard drive. I will have to upgrade to XP with my other disc if I can later.
 
This is always a grey area when it comes to Windows.

Technically when you purchase windows you purchase a licence and not the media it comes on. For this reason although the cd says "Do not make unauthorised copies of this disk" your not supposed to copy Windows CDs you are allowed to back them up, change files like the unattend file and burn them back to a blank cd. Microsoft pretty much give away the ISOs now on their website which basically encourages people to create their own CDs.

Still despite this some sites such as Ebay get tetchy over people selling backups of windows CDs or offering them to download. It's a grey area. First of all you need to identify your version of windows, the flavour and box type. As your Laptop came with XP pre-installed then it will 99% certainly be the OEM box of windows XP Home.

This means you simply need to download/borrow/buy an XP Home OEM disk from somewhere and install it using the key on your laptop (or find a retail version and change the disk type but that's a bit more difficult) most people with brought PCs will have an OEM version so they shouldn't be too hard to find. As long as it's XP home 90% of the time you will be ok.
 
OK so still struggling with this one. Managed to get Windows 98 up and running as this is the only genuine CD I have. It didn't work too well as it's an old operating system going on to a relatively new machine so I re-formatted the HDD and have since tried to install a friends black copy of XP. This is a bootable CD but after it reformats the HDD it comes up with a file it cannot find/install and won't go any further. :bang:
Does this mean I am going to need an original XP disc? End of?:shrug:
They seem to be costing a few quid on Ebay though.

Bloody frustrating not getting the CD with the laptop.:shake:

Gareth
 
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