XP Home CD

[OverWorked]

I'm repairing a laptop for a client. She's got the OEM license for XP Home and the COA sticker, and the OEM XP Home CD. But the CD-drive is dodgy, so I can't install from the OEM CD. It's not worth replacing the laptop CD drive.

BartPE has a solution for booting and installing XP from a USB flash drive. The trouble is that it's known not to work with images from OEM CDs. It'll only work with the vanilla versions of XP. I've tried it - it won't work with the OEM CD.

My question is: does the OEM license permit using the vanilla retail XP CD, with the license key from the COA sticker?

Thanks.

[kmount]

I don't know whether an OEM key would work on a retail installation.

USB CD drive?

[StewartKnight]

the key would be different (obviously) but you can make an XP cd and change it so that it ask for an OEM key, it's just a number change on a file.

Equally, you can install from your disc, as the hardware has a key that allows XP home on it, and that's what matters, not which disc was used to install XP

[OverWorked]

I don't know whether an OEM key would work on a retail installation.

USB CD drive?

I'm not sure about the keys working either. Unfortunately I don't have access to a vanilla XP Home CD to test it.

You've given me an idea, though. XP won't natively install from a USB CD drive, but Bart PE does have a solution for that, I think.

I'll try creating a bootable USB flash drive using a XP Pro CD (which I do have), then use this to boot the system and install the OS from the OEM XP Home CD running from a USB CD-drive. This will leave the laptop with XP Home installed from it's supplied OEM CD. The end result would be perfectly legal, I think!

[OverWorked]

the key would be different (obviously) but you can make an XP cd and change it so that it ask for an OEM key, it's just a number change on a file.

Equally, you can install from your disc, as the hardware has a key that allows XP home on it, and that's what matters, not which disc was used to install XP

I'm not sure what you mean. The original OEM disc is unusable as the CD-drive is bad, and BartPE's boot-from-USB method only works with vanilla CDs, not the OEM type.

[kmount]

XP'll install no problem from a USB CD Drive, we do it daily on our optical drive-less machines.

[OverWorked]

Really?! I'd just read on several sites it wasn't possible, so never tried it. I'll borrow a drive from school try it when I get home.

[Michael]

I would of thought it's more the BIOS which is the limiting factor booting off USB. Machines from 10 years ago wouldn't support such function, but anything new generally does.

[MyDejaVu]

and nope,,, Windows XP Retail will not accept an OEM key, it is like trying to use a Volume License XP Installation Disk and trying entering a Retail XP Key. it will not work!,,,, I had this question in my Microsoft exam 70-271 .

[OverWorked]

XP'll install no problem from a USB CD Drive, we do it daily on our optical drive-less machines.

You're right. I've just tried it on another machine and it does install.

The trouble is, the laptop has no option for booting from USB CD-ROM. The options are 'USB storage disk' and 'USB floppy'. (I've tried them).

There are plenty of sites out there claiming that this isn't possible. See this and this. I wonder if the problem they mention only applies to the original (pre-SP1) version of XP, and it was fixed by slipstreaming SP1 or SP2 into the XP installation.

[maniac]

Check the BIOS boot order, as sometimes it doesn't appear as an option on the F12 boot menu, but if you look at the boot order, the device is listed. Our HP tablets for instance pick up a USB memory stick as a Hard drive, the only way we can boot from USB on them is by changing the boot order in the BIOS so it boots the USB one before the system one, so yours might be the same for CD-ROM drives?

Mike.

[OverWorked]

Thanks Mike, but I've tried all I can with the BIOS settings and boot order.

I'm now having some success with BartPE and a USB flash drive.

I've created a bootable USB flash drive with XP Pro SP2. This is enough to get BartPE booted from flash. I can then access the OEM XP Home CD on a USB CD-drive and run setup from there to install the 'proper' edition of XP Home it should have.

I'm haven't cracked it yet, but I'm having some success.