See I format my hardrive every 6 months to get rid of stuff I pick up on the internet. I find this helps to make my computer faster. I am a beginner at this so every time I do it  I learn more. I also play around and find through doing this I sometimes erase stuff I should not and then end up with corrupt system files. It is all a learning experience. In all the times I have reinstalled Windows XP it has asked for the product key. Yes I am using the product key on the sticker at the bottom of my laptop. Someone told me once that there is a way to do this without the product key but they were not at liberty to tell me how. I am not experienced enough to figure this out. I have spoken to customer services and they seem to think the problem is not with the cd but with the product key. I am still waiting for them to get back to me on that. Is there any way I can locate the product key on the cd I received from Dell without using the number on the sticker of the back of my PC? Just to make sure if it is different?

When you reinstall using the Dell CD, you are not usually asked for a Product Code . . Does the CD match the sticker on the bottom of the laptop . . Home, Pro or MCE?

The Product Key is not on the CD . . are you sure you did not mistake a G for a 6 . . a O for a 0 or  B for  8 . . it's easy to do.

mieliepit-

 

 You do not need the product key when using a Dell cd but you must boot off the cd to install it.

Here's a simpler solution so what you are doing.  After you get the product off your case and fins installing XP with all the current updates, Ghost (image) the drive and store it away.  Want to go back to the original state?  Simple, restore from the activated and updated image.  Depending on your system, this could take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour for a 5 gig image.

 

This will save you untold hours of time and headaches and well worth the $50 or so the software costs.