repartition reformat reinstall xp pro?

Question

Greetings to all :)

I have a somewhat unique situation and hopefully someone can help me solve my problem.

Our church operated a community center and someone(don't know who-but I think it was a business) donated about 15 computers that we used to help students, teach basic computer skills to seniors, etc. Our center was unfortunately closed and the Pastor gave 3 of them to our family.

The 3 computers are all Dell Optiplex GX1. They all have Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 and Windows Office Professional installed. Now we got the brilliant idea to repartition and reformat them and reinstall WinXP Pro. Mostly so we could have a "fresh" computer and also it seems like one of them has a virus, trojan, or something 'cause it will not behave correctly. So we used Belarc Advisor to make sure we had the product keys and other info we might need. We have a valid XP Pro Service Pack 2 cd and Office Pro cd so we would just use that cd to install but use the product key listed in Belarc for each computer.

Repartitioned the first one and then installed XP Pro but the product key listed on Belarc Advisor is not valid? So we used the product key from the cd but we know we cannot activate that or keep it--just wanted to get through the install at that point.

So now we have several questions:

1. Is the computer we repartitioned reinstalled able to install XP without buying another product key(we do not have the funds for this)? Or should we just try out Edubuntu?

2. Is it because the cd we are using is Service Pack 2 and the computers are Sevice Pack 1?

3. How should we handle the other 2 computers? Especially the one with suspicious behavior?

I appreciate any and all help. I am so happy to have found this forum :)

Thanks,

klbreeze

DexterRC · Answer

XP product keys should be located on the base systems somewhere. Their stickers look like this:

If that doesnt work and you want to go to Linux I'd strongly recommend either Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Edubuntu is a bit of a harder install and lacks a few features.

Kubuntu is most like Windows except with some wierd program names. Don't install Linux though if you're unsure how to use the Terminal that's in it because you couldfind yourself in a bit of a difficult situation.

klbreeze · Answer

Thanks DexterRC for info about Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Edubuntu.

These computers were donated from a business to our community center and came with WinXP Pro already installed. They did not come with any documentation. There is only a sticker on one of these computers---it is a Win95 sticker so I guess they upgraded these?

I don't understand why I can't use the WinXP installation disk I have to install and use the product key that is on the computer already to validate. Anyone?

DexterRC · Answer

If you wantto find out the produt keys for your computer visit Control Panel -> System. Your product key will be listed there. Make a note of it and then use it to reinstall XP.

Larry R · Answer

If you have a retail version of XP and the systems were installed using a site-licensed copy then the product keys are not compatible with each other.  It would definitley explain why the key previously used does not work with your CD.

Windows General

repartition reformat reinstall xp pro?

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