Im sorting my neighbours pc out its a HP 7915, It has an xp home code on the side but my neigbour has lost the cd so how do i go about using my old xp home cd with his code? will i have to phone M$? also it really needs a format are there any problems with installing on a HP machine, im only used to machines ive built myself not these prebuilt things that have all special hp software, will it actually allow me to install xp home from a cd? i know i can get into the bios.

Q-TEC 550 Watt PSU
MSI VIA KT4AV-L
2800+ Barton 512 DDR333
GeForce Fx5200 128Mb
Aero 7 Lite
80Gb Samsung ATA133 HDD
120Gb WD ATA100 HDD
LiteOn LDW-851S
LiteOn LTR-52246S

RockyBalboa,

As an FYI, all HP computers (desktops and laptops) running XP are sold without XP CD. The OS has been preinstalled at the factory and is therefore known as XP OEM. I believe each HP computers comes with a software called Recovery CD Creator. The creator enable you to create your own recovery or restore cds. It is yours responsibility to use the Creator, according to the manual and the setup instruction that comes with the computer system.

Hope this helps

Depending on the HP model they setup an install/recovery partition on the hard drive. It is not accessible from the command prompt and does not show up in Windows. HP does not use a standard CD set like a WinXP CD and then program CD's. They typically use a 6-8 CD set called System Restore disk 1-whatever and you insert them one at a time until the system is rebuilt. These are typically a destructive format and reinstall. You need the set he might have received, contact HP and order a set specifically for that model Pavilion or burn a set from his system if it still works. If you have to go the get a CD set from HP expect to spend some money. If I recall they were at least $50 a set. I would hope you could burn a set of CD-R's and go from there. As I mentioned the sets are made for each system due to the installed hardware. The CD set contains the drivers for what you have and nothing else. I had problems with receiving imaged hard drives from them with the wrong model image and having the install blow up due to software and drivers.
Good luck

Richard