Note of caution here!!! Your laptop is propably has an OEM install of XP using a method of install called "System Locked Pre-installation," or SLP. This is also sometimes known as a BIOS locked install. The OS on your laptop would thus be tightly locked to your BIOS preventing it from being installed anywhere else. In such a case the OEM supplier builds a standard image with his own OEM Licence Key which is "Pre-Activated". The C.O.A. on your laptop may or may not match this. If you re-install then you WILL need to activate your install by phone as you will loose the tightly couple SLP install. There is a way of extracting the current key (using the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder) and then using that key with your OEMBIOS files and the i386 folder to create a fresh OEM install CD (using SlipStreaming) that preserves your tightly coupled OEM install but it is a long winded process. If you succeed then you will have an install that does not need activation. Here is some background info on SLP installs: Technical Details on Microsoft Product Activation for Windows XP. System Locked Preinstallation. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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Hello again, Ahh right good job i havent gone ahead and done it yet. Could I not partition the hard drive then install xp on that partition and if it works correctly then format the partition with the original xp on there?

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You could Partition the HD but you should first Format the HD and then partition it to create a New Partition and pop in the CD that you burned, if this CD that you burned is an ISO format it should have the OEM Bootable secquence .exe for the Installation of your OS. However like Mosaddique said SLP's are very painful when you attempt to install a new version of Windows and find out the OEM Key you keyin from the bottom of the Laptop did not match the preinstalled one from HP. BECAREFUL.... What you should do before doing anything is ORDER CD's from HP to reinstall Windows on your Laptop. Then do all the above Format/Partition/ clean install of Windows.

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Yes, if you have disk space available, you can install a new copy of XP to a newly created partition from the available free space. This would indeed allow you to try out a fresh install. However, you must remember that this will result in a dual boot install with a boot menu that will prompt you to boot into your original XP or your newly installed one. Further more the boot files (boot.ini, ntldr, etc) will be resident on the boot drive which I suspect will be the one with your original XP. Formatting that will loose you the ability to boot into your new XP. Best thing is to prove that you can re-install as per your idea. Once you are happy with the result, format both XP partitions (after securing your personal data, i386 folder, oembios.* files etc) and install a fresh copy of XP. Another alternative is replace your current hard drive temporarily with another (it does not have to be big a 4GB will do) and use it for your trial. That way you are not risking anything. You may also be interested in the procedure described here.. This will hopefully show you how to use the oembios files in order to recreate your OEM install. A google search of slipstream and oembios will give you more to look at. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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Hey Again! I have managed to slipstream sp2 with my i386 directory and have burned this on to cd. It boots fine and the setup program starts no problem. Would this be ok now to format my hard drive and use this cd? is there anyway to test it first (like on another computer to check if it all installs fine?) Many Thanks

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Rather than format your hard drive, if you have spare disk space on that hard drive, you could create a new partiton of about 4gb (using partition magic or similar) and then install a new copy of XP to the newly created partition. This will allow you to test the CD and preserve your current XP until you are fairly certain of achieving the desired result. After that you can do pretty much what you wish. The other option as I said is to acquire a smallish hard drive (from ebay or a computer fair). A 4 GB or similar size will do. Use that to try out your CD and then proceed as you wish. If you do decide to not do any of the above and format then remember there is no way back. As they say, the choice is yours. Incidentally have you built in the OEMBIOS.* files into your new CD? ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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Hey guys! Yea think i will partition it! How do i check if the oembios files are on the cd?

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In your CDs i386 folder there should be the following compressed OEM files: Oembios.bi_ Oembios.ca_ Oembios.da_ Oembios.si_ When you install the OS they will be expanded to the following uncompressed OEM files: Oembios.bin Oembios.cat Oembios.dat Oembios.sig If your files are in the uncompress (expanded) form (i.e. as the second list above, then the 4 OEMBIOS files need to be compressed using MAKECAB in order to create the 4 compressed files as listed in the first list. There should also be a fifth file called oembios.ini. Check it is there in the uncompressed form. You do not need to do anything with it but it should be present in the i386 directory. Hope it helps. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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Hey guys, Just to clarify something i used he cd to just reinstall the upgrade over my laptop and it installed fine with no problems, i had to phone up and activate windows but managed to do that no problem. So now i know the cd works is it ok to format and use the cd to make a fresh install. Oh and all them files are on the cd!

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I suppose that so long as you do not care what is on the original XP (or you have saved whatever you need from it) you can format. One thing however. As you have now activated your install you should save your activation files so you do not have to keep phoning up to activate each time you install. Save Windows Activation Files Before Reinstall Follow these steps. Backup your activation files: 1. Open Windows explorer and navigate to C:\Windows\System32 2. Copy the files Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak to another media floppy, CD-R or another hard drive (if you have more than one installed) Now you can reformat your drive and reinstall Windows XP. At the end of the installation, when Windows asks you to activate your product, decline and do not activate. Restore your activation files 1. Restart your system, and as your system boots up press F8 to access the boot options (Windows Advanced Options) 2. From the menu options select to start Windows in safe mode (minimal) 3. After Windows loads in safe mode, open Windows explorer and navigate back to C:\Windows\System32 4. If you find the files Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak in this folder, rename the files to something like Wpa.dbl.backup and Wps.bak.backup 5. Copy your original Wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak from the CD or floppy back to C:\Windows\System32 6. Restart Windows You should now have a clean and activated Windows XP This link also shows you how to do that. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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hey there, Yea i have backed up al my stuff on to cd-r and now going to format it! wsh me luck lol

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heya guys, I just put the cd in the drive and set it to boot from cd-rom and it says "cd boot = couldnt find ntldr. then it boots from hard drive in to windows no problem. How is this? i used the cd earlier to perform the upgrade

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It looks as though the computer is trying to boot fromn the hard disk. Check your BIOS and make sure that the CD is first in the boot order. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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If you are attempting to run the install from the CD-ROM make sure the CD-ROM is the first boot device, and not the hard disk drive. Second, when the computer is booting you should receive the below prompt. Press any key to boot from the CD Important: When you see this message press any key such as the Enter key immediately, otherwise it will try booting from the hard drive and likely get the NTLDR error again. Maybe this is what is happenning. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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hey again, there is no "press any key prompt" and the bios is set to boot from the cd. But the cd worked earlier (although i didnt boot it from the start as i did the upgrade option to see if the cd worked) Any ideas?

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alrite im getting peed off with this now! i set the bios AGAIN to boot from cd and it now says couldnot boot from cd error code 5

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It may be to do with how you created your bootable CD. How did you create it? and how did you go about to make it a bootable CD? Here is a link that shows how it could be done. When you tested the CD in upgrade mode, unfortunately you did not test the bootable aspect of it. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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well i used image burn. i cannot use nero burning rom as it was bundled with a recorder that i bought for a previous computer, and i have that version installed on my laptop which doesnt have the original recorder and says I cannot use bruning rom so I have to use nero express. so I followed this guide: http://www.howtohaven.com/system/cr... i can only assume there is a problem with this guide somwhere, If i downloaded a trial version of nero 6 would I still be able to use it to burn the cd?

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have you got simultaneous access to a CDROM drive and a Floppy drive on your laptop? If you do, then you could try the floppy approach which would enable you to use your CD for now. See here. Make sure you select the right version for your service pack (SP) level. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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Ahh right thanks a lot! Just gotta buy some floppies now lol. so the fat that it isnt bootable should matter or cause any problems then

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hope not ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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Other alternatives to try is to install from your hard drive or from CD in a different way. Here are a few links that show how (I have not tried them myself): This webpage shows how to install from an unbootable CD. See the section titled "Another option to the floppy disk set". This webpage shows how to install from a hard drive. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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heya guys, I done it! the disk booted fine. I just burnt it again and something must have changed in the settings and its all ok. It booted fine loaded all the drivers and took me to the windows xp setup screen so am I now safe to format and start a fresh? I have the product key and dont mind phoning up to activate xp again. Many thanks for all your help!

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I am glad you are sorted. As for your question, see response number 16. ___________________________________________ ☺ When everything else fails, read the instructions.

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