Not knowing the repercussions I recently donated an unused DVD-Rom drive (that was installed when the system was built) out of my PC to a friends machine. It appears while I was in hospital over the weekend Windows gave up waiting for me to re-activate it and now I cannot fully boot up (can only get into 'safe-mode'). When I select to re-active windows I just get a white screen with no buttons to click etc. I have tried the fixes listed here http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=... but none have worked. The second problem I have is that as it is 7 years since I purchased the machine I seem to have lost my original XP CD during variius house moves. When I've called Microsoft they've advised me to either find the CD (unhelpful) or buy a new one from them (expensive - as I've already paid for it once!). Other than that they say they cannot help me. Any advice is very much appreciated!! Thanks, O.

Put this line in your start / run then click ok oobe/msoobe /a " Please Post back to let us know if we helped "

solution to problem #2: get a copy of the windows installation cd matching your system and use it with your legit license key Today's subliminal thought is: 'Calm down ... it's only ones and zeros.' icq 10183575

Thanks for the advice Bob, but the activation prog cannot be run from Safe Mode (which is the only way for me to get to the Start/Run menu.

Thanks Mattie, I guess I'll have try your method (although when I asked MS if this was possible they told me not only would I invalidate my own version of Windows but also the version belonging to the person who's CD I borrowed...!)

There are some things that you just don't tell Microsoft.

just make sure you get the same version of xp. I had to make a new restore partition on a drive, and the 1st time I had a retail version of xp. and it was a no go with microsoft. then I found an oem cd that worked. I still had to call and get the 46 or whatever code to activate with. even though the coa matched the version of xp. from what I've heard and seen, all reinstalls (that didn't have a backup of the wpa files) had to phone in to get activated.