If anyone read my last post it went a little something like this:

 

"I just bought a new hard drive for my inspiron 6000, and it didn't
run.

I used my old hard drive to go on dell forums and i was told to use my
windows XP CD to boot my computer

But...Dell is a pain in the neck and didn't give me an XP CD with my
laptop, so I had to use an old CD that was a lot older than the most
recent Service Pack

So I booted my laptop up and nothing worked, so I went back online and
found out I needed to download the drivers off the dell website.  Go
figure

I downloaded everything that I needed and now my computer is saying
that I don't have a genuine copy and I need to activate my version. 

So I try to activate, but my product key isn't right, even though I
checked and I know it is right

So I look through the help section and it says that I have to purchase
a code from 90-200$
Ugh

So i Go back onto Dell Forums, and I am told to email or chat with a
Dell representative and they should give me a recent Windows XP CD for
FREE
Now I am excited

So I try to chat, but no I need to enter my service tag number. I put
it in, and what do you know, my fricking hardware service account
expired or whatever it is. Email had the same problem.

Is there any way to successfully get a new hard drive without
purchasing anything...but the hard drive?

Now every time I log on I'm getting warnings that I only have 23 days
left to activate, and I can't run Windows Update ,which will help my
computer become up to date, without activating.

If there is anything that I can do without paying Dell any more money,
it would be very appreciated if anyone filled me in"

 

I got a few emails saying that some people replied, and I would have loved to read their replys, but unfortunately my post was deleted because I sweared in it. So if anyone would like to rereply that would be cool