I recently got rid of my 5 years old sony vaio and bought a low price laptop called EI Systems. To my surprise I found out that it didn’t come with an OS CD although XP is preinstalled. Users on another forums confirmed that most laptops don’t come with a OS CD anymore. Apparently it is on a unaccessable part of harddisk.
Now my problem is that I can’t figure out how to change the partition of hard disk. At the moment th 40G hard disk is all a single partition. Again users suggested that I reinstall XP but I don’t know how to reinstall it. I should although mention that there is no mention of reinstalling OS on its manual - which is only a pdf file and not a hard print booklet. -
I believe that Microsoft changed the liscensing for pre-built vendors like Dell, HP, etc. to where they could not ship a physical copy of Windows with their systems. Most companies these days send a restore CD because of this. I don’t know if this is still in effect or if it only applies to companies of a certain volume. The reason I say that is because some smaller botique builders have shipped a full copy of Windows with their systems.
Now, you should have a product key on your laptop. If that’s the case, you can borrow a copy of XP and use that key.
No, My laptop is windows XP home. I have a window XP Pro installed on my desktop and got its CD. So instead of borrowing a CD from somebody and install in on the laptop, can I insert my pro CD and enter the serial number of the home version?
The reason I ask because I don’t want to get stuck in the middle, losing the currently installed OS on the laptop and not being able to install a new one.
Exactly this thing will gonna happen if you install XPP on XPH..
if you compare their prices…XPP is 100$ more than XPH (in NZ, I dont know about other countries).
Edit: Check with Microsoft how many licenses you’ve got on your XPP… You might have 5 License copy with your Desktop XPP…
Just a note here, it may not help but it’ll back up Big B’s post.
My laptop came with no OS CD - after turning on you go through some initial Windows configuration and then are asked to provide either 5 CD’s or 1 DVD to burn a restore disc, however, if you’ve got the sticker with a serial number on it then you’re perfectaly within your rights to borrow an XP CD and use your Liscence (sp?) key for that install - if it’s on the same machine that is.
Well, it’s quite possible you’ve got a corporate version, which doesn’t require activation to work. My XP Pro is like that, thanks to some deal MS worked out with at least one of the colleges in town.