Recovery partition and hard drive failure

[tommcat1208]

I have a HP PC with the OS recovery on a separate partition and the disk is now dead. No way of booting to the disk or reading from it. All kinds of errors that say the hard drive has failed. I tryed rocovery console to fix the boot and MBR. Still no luck. My ? is if I were to replace the drive and wanted to reinstall XP, could I use an  XP setup disk from a friend and use the activation key thats on the side of the tower and still be legal?
Thanks, Tom

[BC_Programmer]

I believe so, it's really the key your paying for and not the disc.


Preemptive comment, for next posters:

No, each Disc does not only accept a certain key or certain sets of keys. ALL windows XP CDs are the SAME.

[dahlarbear]

I have a HP PC with the OS recovery on a separate partition and the disk is now dead. No way of booting to the disk or reading from it. All kinds of errors that say the hard drive has failed. I tryed rocovery console to fix the boot and MBR. Still no luck.

1.  Recovery Console.  How far did you get with "Recovery Console"?  Did it give you a "command" prompt from which you could "map" the drives and/or access the %systemroot" directory and subdirectories?

2.  Hard Drive Dead.  Since you didn't provide any "specific" symptoms or error messages, it's difficult for us to know if the drive is "dead".  (I do realize your question was regarding product key/install CD compatibility - I'm just saying...).

You could test the hard drive using the "free" bootable diagnostic software most  hard drive manufacturers provide as a "download" on their support web site.

[patio]

I believe so, it's really the key your paying for and not the disc.


Preemptive comment, for next posters:

No, each Disc does not only accept a certain key or certain sets of keys. ALL windows XP CDs are the SAME.

Agreed !

[dahlarbear]

Within the last few days, an article was referenced that an OEM Windows XP Install CD would only accept an "OEM" product key, and a Retail Windows XP Install CD would only accept a "Retail" product key - unless you modified the CD image?

I'm not sure what the deal is with a Volume License Windows XP Install CD.  My guess is, it would only accept "Volume License" product keys.

Anybody want to change their answer?

[BC_Programmer]

I have several XP images and they all accepted any key I threw at them. Well, except for the upgrade keys, since I was doing a clean install. Let's not go into detail of where I got the keys, though, OK? 

An "Upgrade" CD will even accept any other XP key for the non-upgrade edition... the problem being that most upgrade discs aren't bootable to begin with, so you need an OS to start the install anyway.... but using it you can enter the non-upgrade key (be it VLK or retail) and perform a clean install, an option not available using the "upgrade" key.

Volume License Windows XP Install CD

the thing is- there is no "Volume License" XP install CD- a "Volume license" is issued to manufacturers, Dell, Toshiba, HP and so on so that they may preinstall XP into the PCs without having to go through the standard activation process- they are "preactivated" in a way. "volume license" discs simply aren't produced.

they key word of the title of the link you provided is "OEM Restore Disks"- an OEM restore disc is simply not an XP CD in the general sense- but a recovery Disc. for all intents and purposes it is not a "windows" CD.

[tommcat1208]

I've tryed to do a recovery through hard drive diagnostic software but no luck. The hard drive makes a loud clacking sound when it appears to access info from it. I was able to get it to boot for about 5 mins. till I got the dreaded blue screen. The POST errors stated that the hard drive was in fact failed and I tryed to see if I could at least retreive files from it on a working computer, but it was like it had no filing system on it. In MMC disk management it said it was healthy but not formated. I tryed fixmbr and fixboot in recovery console and they seemed to find that what was on it was corrupt and that it successfully fixed them. If anyone has a suggestion as to how I could recover pics and whatnot off of the dead drive, I would appreciate it very much.
Thanks, Tom

[patio]

Slave Drive Tutorial

I suggest doing this as soon as possible...the noise you're hearing is probably the dreaded "clik of death"....the sound of an imminent HDD failure.

[dahlarbear]

I have a HP PC with the OS recovery on a separate partition and the disk is now dead.   ...   My ? is if I were to replace the drive and wanted to reinstall XP, could I use an  XP setup disk from a friend and use the activation key thats on the side of the tower and still be legal?

If you can get the "...activation key thats on the side of the tower ..." to work (and successfully activate), I don't think anyone would come after you.

I'm having a little trouble wrapping my mind around this problem (don't have the luxury or resources to go try it), but here's another link regarding Using an OEM Key.

[patio]

It's really quite simple...if you have a valid key it should work...

If it does not work all it takes is a call to MS's 800#...

[tommcat1208]

Thanks for all the help peeps! I now wait for the new disk to arrive and we will see if all goes well. 
Tom