Installing Windows Xp Home Edition SP2

Question

Hi,       I bought a Dell Inspiron 5160 recently......I installed a few software afetr which the OS got corrupt so I tried re-installing it with my friends XP Home Edition Sp2 CD and then I entered my Key (at the back of the notebook..) but it says that I have entered a wrong key.....I did not get the CD by DELL the person just put a folder I386 on my hard-disk. I donot know what to do can somebody help??? thanks in advance.

osprey4 · Answer

Always best to contact Dell tech support before trying anything drastic, but I suppose that's water under the bridge. You system has, or rather had before you tried installing XP, a utility to restore the originally shipped hard drive image.

See if you are still able to create an OS recovery disc following these instruations:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=1091713

ujwal · Answer

I checked up that and alas I deleted all the partitions and created new partitions.......isnt there anything I can do with this or do I have to get a new XP package...thnk

rickmktg · Answer

@ujwal wrote:

Hi,

I bought a Dell Inspiron 5160 recently......I installed a few software afetr which the OS got corrupt so I tried re-installing it with my friends XP Home Edition Sp2 CD and then I entered my Key (at the back of the notebook..) but it says that I have entered a wrong key.....I did not get the CD by DELL the person just put a folder I386 on my hard-disk. I donot know what to do can somebody help??? thanks in advance.

What does "the person just put a folder I386 on my hard disk" mean? Did you buy a used computer?

JRosenfeld · Answer

If your friend's XP SP2 CD is a retail version, it will only install with the product key that was on the sleeve the disk came in, but your friend presumably used that to load it onto his PC and you  (and possibly your friend) would get into problems when you tried to activate it (that's the whole point of activation: to stop people one CD to install on different PCs).   If it was a Dell OEM CD for a similar model PC it might work, not sure, but as I understand it Dell OEM CD has the Dell OEM product key in its files and does not ask for a product key on install.

ujwal · Answer

Hi, The Laptop came with Windows XP preinstalled....I guess that is that Dell does that now a days...he created a rescue partition but I deleted it is there any thing I can do???????????  thnks

rickmktg · Answer

@ujwal wrote:

Hi,

The Laptop came with Windows XP preinstalled....I guess that is that Dell does that now a days...he created a rescue partition but I deleted it is there any thing I can do??????????? thnks

You need to buy a new copy of XP.

simpswr · Answer

This is a good place to buy one . .   wrs

Windows General

Installing Windows Xp Home Edition SP2

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