broken my XP OEM disk - Help

[Leeagt]

I went to do a re install of Windows only to discovered my Windows XP Professional OEM disk is broken. (Snapped in 2)

I have installed Linux but i need Windows to be able to login to work. I d/l a OEM disk but it won't activate with my Product Key (For the broken disk)

Any help suggestions are very much appreciated

 

[Thommo]

I had this before, the OEM download you will have got will have sp1 or some update on it that makes it newer than the version of disk you had. you need to find a download thats old without any updates like sp1 sp2 etc... as your key wont work.. stupid i know but i have the same thing with win7 a few months back, my laptop didnt come with a disk and i was supposed to do a back up but never did so when my lappy crashed big time i had to reinstall, lucky i had a win7 d/l on a disk, i loaded it on and when it came to the key even though its a legit key it wouldnt take. i browsed microsoft and that is the answer i found as to why my legit key wouldnt work.

my key works for win7 the orig without any updates or sp1'etc.... the win7 i had downloaded was win7 with sp1 updates.

only thing i can think of.... try to get an old version without updates or just do what i did and fecked my legit key off and loaded removewat to make it legit.

 

[paddair]

Try the instructions at mydigitallife.info to create a multi oem windows xp dvd which will actibate on your PC

 

[Leeagt]

I found an older Dell XP iso on torrents. Managed to activate it on a virtual machine so just need to burn it to disc and install over Linux and then dual boot again.

Thanks for help Guys