Reinstall XP w/ OEM disc?

[Andy]

If I bought a brand new XP Home + Pro OEM SP3 disc online, could I use it to reinstall XP on any OEM system? (I'm only interested in whether or not it will work, not the legal stuff).

 

[DarDar]

generally yes but some people have reported that some systems will require a SP as per the one that came with the system. I know for a repair install i will always match what was installed.

Get a non-SP disc or one with just SP1 and slipstream in SP2 and SP3 to create a copy of each.

 

[iisjman07]

You should be able to do most installs, but as previously stated, you may need specific service packs (usually on older systems). Once you have the different service packs, the only other thing you may need is a Media Center disk

 

[Andy]

From Wikipedia:

Direct OEM product keys will often not activate with System Builder installation media because Direct OEMs are now required by Microsoft to pre-activate their copies in the factory using their own internal mechanism before delivery to the customer.



:'(

 

[Andy]

I believe that applies to computers made in 2005 and thereafter. So, I guess I could buy the OEM media, but it could only work on pre-2005 computers. I mainly wanted it for older computers anyways because computers from around 1999-2002 don't have OEM discs or recovery partitions. Those two things are a lot more common nowadays (especially the recovery partition). And, if they needed a recovery disc (example: HDD is dead) then I could more than likely purchase a disc for it online because it's now that old of a system.

Sound about right?

 

[DarDar]

Pretty much. Try and keep an eye out for the Dell disks. They are just the basic OEM disks with very little Dell branding.

 

[MM PC Solutions]

I used a dell disk, just stripped out the oem stuff specific to dell & re-burned.

The disk is SP2 integrated and have had no problems with it on any oem machine.

XP with Sp3 intergrated is a pain though, I can only get this disk to install on HP/Compaq. It'd be nice to find an unspecific oem if that makes sense!