OS Swap?

I have a e1705 with windows media center and a friend from work just recieved an e1505 with xp home. He wants to do a clean reinstall but doesn't have a dell reinstall disk. Can he re-install windows using my Media Center Dell disk even though his COA is for Home?

I told him I had no problem using my disks but I am unsure if it will work....He may have to wait and order the cd's from dell....

 

No, he can't do this. They are different products. The serial number won't work.

 

if he owns a legitamate copy of xp, whether he physically has the disks or not, he could certainly just have someone who has the disk burn him a copy. Make sure he writes down his cd key before he reinstalls - google magical jelly bean software

 

Since the disk are preloaded with oem codes for your series of laptop, they are interchangable. The code on the bottem of the laptops dosnt actually get entered, its only to identify to customer service that you are a unique owner of "a" copy of windows.

 

Why not just call dell and request the XP disc? For one, he'll have his own copy if he needs it again. They'll send it to him for free and he'll get the disc in about 2 business days. All he needs to do is contact Dell's Tech support.

 

Mixing and matching XP CDs and serial numbers is like a lottery: one time a switch might work and another time it might not.

If your friend has XP home serial number it will NOT work with the media center or professional editions and vice versa.

As Southern Girl has said, getting a cd from dell is the best option in this case (at least as you describe it).

Your friend won't find out if his serial number works with your CD until after he wipes out his system and re-installs Windows. If the serial number doesn't work your friend will end up with a system that he can't use and that is not nice.

 

Actually, it should work fine. In my case, I didn't have to enter anything in when I reinstalled XP on my M90. A few months ago, I found a burned XP disc lying around my house (didn't quite know where that came from). But I was having problems with Win2k on my old Latitude C640, so I decided to reformat using that XP disc. It worked fine. Never had a problem. That definitely wasn't the disc that came with the laptop (it didn't even come with XP). Tried installing that same disc in a VM and I had to enter an activation key, which of course I didn't have. From what I've heard, it's pretty hit or miss doing things like this. Best advice as said would be for him to just get his own CD. Plus, I'm pretty sure doing this might be illegal since he has XP Home and is replacing it with XP MCE... not what he paid for.