hi, i have a 2 yr old emachine that i want to clean install xp - i've lost the oem disk but have the serial no - i don't want to spend £80 on a retail version - i've heard that you can intall from the hard drive - is this true or just waffle? - any help appreciated.

Well, you can use any OEM installation CD for the most part. This isn't approved or condoned by Microsoft. You can do it and get Windows activated without a hitch that way. To be honest, they are just files on a CD, the serial you have is really what makes it legal. A lot of these PC's don't even come with CD's and cause a lot of grief for the end user. There's a huge hubbub about the legalities behind this and that but you should be fine in installing and activating Windows. As far as I know, installing Windows from the hard drive is only possible if you upgrade from Windows 98/ME to Windows XP Home.

thanks astroraptor - i have a couple of dells, all with xp oem disks - i read that these 'might' install ok but the problems comes when you try to 'activate' ie there is some sort of hash number that is generated relating to the pc h/ware config on install & that number is in turn tied to the serial no of the oem disk on activation - hence if you try to install on a second pc (different hash no generated) you cannot activate - perhaps i'm wrong??

Have you contacted e-machines to see if you can obtain a Recovery/Reinstallation CD? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

you can also purchase one form emachines, I lost mine last year and it cost about $20.00 US

Your computer probably did not come with any disk with which you can recover or re-load your original software installation. Brand name systems do not normally come with a regular Windows CD (or DVD) either, unless you ordered one when you bought the computer. It MIGHT have come with a disk from which you can load drivers and other software, or make a SATA drivers floppy disk. If your Windows is working well enough, there is an emachines supplied program already in your All Programs list somewhere with which you can make a single Recovery disk (or similar, the name varies) that you can use along with the original intact and unaltered contents of your second partitionto to re-load all the original software that was on C, and/or with which you can make a set of CDs with which you can re-load the entire original contents of the hard drive. If your original second partition data has been altered at all, or added to, or deleted, or if the hard drive is defective and you need to load a new drive, you must use a Recovery disk set if you want to be able to re-install the orginal emachines software installation. If Windows no longer works well enough for you to be able to use that (or those) program(s), you MAY be able to order a Recovery disk set from the emachines web site, for your exact model, if you contact them. If you CAN get a Recovery disk set, it will probably cost you a lot less than even an OEM XP Home CD. If you can't make or get the Recovery disk or Recovery disk set, then you have no choice except to re-load Windows from a regular Windows disk, in which case you will not have the rest of the software originally included, you will have to install drivers yourself, Activate Windows yourself, etc., etc. If your hard drive is SATA, Windows Setup may not find any hard drive on your computer, depending on settings in your mboard bios Setup - in that case, you need to either change settings in your bios Setup, or load SATA controller drivers from files on a floppy disk in a floppy drive early in Setup, or make yourself a slipstreamed CD that has the contents of the Windows CD with the proper SATA drivers integrated into it. If your computer has a genuine Microsoft sticker on it with the Product Key on it, then you don't have to buy a Windows CD (or DVD) - you can use a COPY of one of the same version, along with the Product Key on the label - that is perfectly legitimate. You must use "disk at once" or similar to copy the CD (or DVD) - copying just the visible files will result in a non-bootable CD (or DVD). Use a CD-R (or DVD-R if it's a DVD) disk for best optical drive compatibilty.

thanks all for your replies - tubesandwires, i will look for that recovery program in 'all programs' as you suggested as xp is ok - cherylb