Getting recovery disk to work

[Custodian]

Am trying to help a friend recover their knackered Advent PC so the kid can use it. Apart from having a busted CD drive (again), which I can get around by just plugging one of mine in, it was also so badly infested with virus/trojan/adware/etc. that we decided to reformat the thing.

So, stuck in Win ME (I know :/) recovery disk, chose the format optiom for a clean install, and that seemed to go ok.
Then tried running the WinXP upgrade disk (which came free with the PC but they had failed to get working before) thinking it would be a good idea to do that straight away.

For some reason the upgrade decided that there was no previous Windows OS on the HDD. Cancelled it, rebooted to confirm WinME was still working... all ok. XP upgrade in again, reboot, start checking.... says no Windows installed again. It wants a Windows CD inserted before it will proceed. Well we don't have one, only the recovery disk (tried just in case, no joy).

OK, desperation, stuck in an old Win98 disk. XP upgrade is happy and carries on. Asks if I want to reformat to NTFS instead of FAT32, I say sure thing. It reformats, it installs some stuff, all trundelling along nicely. Then it asks for the license key. I copy it in from the Windows sticker on the PC....invalid.
Maybe the ME one don't work cos I stuck the Win98 disk in... so type in Win98 key... invalid. Now I am stuck. There is no cancel option and none of my perfectly legal license keys are accepted. Can only assume that the upgrade also came with one (although there is no sticker on the disks or the book) and they have lost it. That or Microsoft are being complete arse.

So, no option but to cancel the whole thing and recover back to ME again.

Except... it won't :{
ME recovery disk now says the PC is not the correct configuration and refuses to run. I am guessing that allowing it to reformat the HDD has confused it.

I have emailed the PC World support several times (buggered if I am paying £1 a minute for this) and of course have had no response whatsoever.
Haven't emailed MS, as I can already imagine their "talk to your manufacturer" response :/

Everything is legit, it is the original PC and all components, and original disks and licenses, and yet MS and Advent seem to have managed to make it impossible for me to recover the system legally.

Any ideas anyone?
(apart from spending another £160 on a another license for Windows)

 

[smurkin]

my xp update has a product key on it...sticker on the folder that came with the box. I would be tempted to do something naughty...there is a key generator available - its a little quirky and it can take a few tries...but I believe it works (have never tried it - my stuffs legit). I cant imagine ringing MS would be very helpful...so without that key....

 

[Escape]

MS and Advent seem to have managed to make it impossible for me to recover the system legally.

I'd suggest your answer lies in there...

If you already own the software, is it illegal to use a different cd-key to what you were given? It's the software you pay for, the cd-key is there to make life difficult for pirates... although it has the opposite effect!

 

[JBP|]

I'd suggest your answer lies in there...

If you already own the software, is it illegal to use a different cd-key to what you were given? It's the software you pay for, the cd-key is there to make life difficult for pirates... although it has the opposite effect!

actually you pay for a license to use the software.

i suggest emailing MS they might send you some new disks or something.

not sure if it would work the same but when my intelimouse broke(after 3 years of use) i emailed MS support and they promtly sent me a new mouse .

its worth a try atleast as the worst they can say is bugger off and buy a new os.

 

[mookie]

http://www.dsgrecovery.com for manufacturer restore cds.

 

[Custodian]

Thanks for the thoughts all.

smurkin seems to be confirming what I suspected, that my friends have lost whatever had the XP upgrade license on it and so that's the upgrade stuffed. I'm always telling them to just put everything in the drawer just in case. Was impressed we actually found the original disks, so not surprised they lost that.

Thanks for the link mookie, but I do have all the original disks. It's just that the recovery disk refuses to run as it thinks this is not the same PC, I am guessing cos of the NTFS format I allowed the upgrade to do. At this point I would be more than happy with just being able to recover WinME.

I seem to recall summat about being able to reinstate whatever it is that the recovery disk is looking for. That's what I was hoping PC World support would tell me, but as they still aint answering any emails I guess that aint gunna happen.

I suppose an email to MS won't cost anything, but as I am not claiming anything is faulty I am not expecting them to be helpful.

I really don't want to do anything that breaks the rules to get this PC working, as I have never condoned or carried out any illegal action before, but with no support from the supplier I just can't see any way of recovering this legally (i.e. not using another OS or OS key) without spending lots of money (which aint gunna happen).

 

[Dr_Weasel]

If you insist on being legit (even though you technically already own a license then the cheapest option is to grab a copy of Win XP home OEM. Cheapest I can see with a very limited look is at ebuyer 63 quid As its an OEM version youll probably have to buy some hardware at the same time. May I suggest a floppy drive for 4 quid?

Its not ideal, but better than the 160 quid you thought.

 

[Custodian]

For anyone interested....

PC World & Advent never ever responded to any of my contacts over 4 weeks.

However, after a few emails and a couple of phone calls Microsoft kindly gave me a new license key for the XP upgrade. Took them 3 attempts to give me one that was valid, but they did do it. Had to give them all sorts of info, but the key thing seemed to be the part number on the XP upgrade CD itself.

So... XP is installed, and 60MB of critical updates later the PC is ready for use
The nipper wil be pleased. Just gotta install some games on it for him now.