I needed to replace my HDD on my 4 year old Packard Bell (..

External Since: Apr 23, 2006 Posts: 272

Hi,
I needed to replace my HDD on my 4 year old Packard Bell (PB) A7145 laptop.
As readers may know PB laptops don't come with Windows XP installation disks
but rely on the use of restore disks & a restore partition on the HDD. I no
longer have the restore partition so thought that I only needed to reinstall
Windows XP and use the product key that came with the original laptop. That
didn't work because it looks as though PB use a particular OEM version of
Windows. I see that the sticker is marked NEC presumably indicating that it
is a special version.
My options seen to be:
- Buy another Windows XP but that will cost more than the laptop is worth,
- Find a copy of the NEC version of Windows XP Home & if so from where? PB
don't support their laptops older than 3 years old so won't supply it,
- Ask Microsoft how they might be able to help. Any suggestions for a
telephone number to call for MS assistance please?

David

External Since: Aug 21, 2008 Posts: 94

I doubt your Product Key issue has anything to do with the letters NEC. It
is more likely that you are attempting to use an OEM Product Key with an
non-OEM version of XP. You will need to find a copy of XP that is an OEM
version and try installing it using your Product Key.

--

Xandros

"David" <David RemoveThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:03DD67FB-9BFB-4120-A1D1-29C73C18B019@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
> I needed to replace my HDD on my 4 year old Packard Bell (PB) A7145
> laptop.
> As readers may know PB laptops don't come with Windows XP installation
> disks
> but rely on the use of restore disks & a restore partition on the HDD. I
> no
> longer have the restore partition so thought that I only needed to
> reinstall
> Windows XP and use the product key that came with the original laptop.
> That
> didn't work because it looks as though PB use a particular OEM version of
> Windows. I see that the sticker is marked NEC presumably indicating that
> it
> is a special version.
> My options seen to be:
> - Buy another Windows XP but that will cost more than the laptop is worth,
> - Find a copy of the NEC version of Windows XP Home & if so from where? PB
> don't support their laptops older than 3 years old so won't supply it,
> - Ask Microsoft how they might be able to help. Any suggestions for a
> telephone number to call for MS assistance please?
>
> David
>