I own a Dell XP Professional from ~2003. The reinstallation CD was probably thrown out. Have a virus and need to reinstall from scratch. Can the disk be replaced? Should I see if I could borrow the disk from a friend, and if so, does it matter if it says a different Service Pack (1a, 2, 3) on the disk?
I you still have the sticker that came with the computer that contains the installation key then there shouldn't be a problem providing you do a clean install and not try to install over the existing installation. That means deleting all partitions and starting again from scratch. The Installation disk should do that for you. It matters little what the Service pack is, you can always install the latest service pack after the OS has been installed. However bear in mind that SP1a will not recognises a hard dsik in its entirety bigger than 132 Gbs. You need SP2 for that and a 48 bit compliant BIOS. SATA could be a problem but I doubt a computer that old has a SATA drive.
Stuart
Err.... I suspect that 132MB HD limitation was a typo for 132GB. Even my old W98 is running 15GB.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Yes, should have been 132Gbs Stuart
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