did an overlay install on the other computer and it being a dell the only copy of xp i had was a recovery disk that will unfortunaltly wipe my hard drive first so i borrowd my friends copy (legit copy of xp) and did and overlay instead everythging took perfectly except one minor hitch it says i need to activate the product before i can log in no prob i still got my product for it and have only installed it once so it still should work -----wrong when i select change key i have entered it ten different times and it wont take it beleive me im trying to be legit not crack so how do i fix this prob since it wont let me logon till i activate it and it wont take my key from dell??? im thingking there must be a difference between the full version cd key and manufacturer keys but how do i resolve this? any help greatly appreciated

Yes, there's a difference between retail and OEM versions of XP. You should be able to install XP from your Dell OEM CD without losing your data. Boot from the Dell CD. At the first screen, hit ENTER (not R, you don’t want the Recovery Console). The next screen will be the License Agreement, hit F8. On the next screen is when you want to hit R to Repair. Now XP should do a repair installation. Hope this helps.

if you are still having problems I will send you a document that helps youget around this problem. ckwebb22@adelphia.net