Activation problem

[confounded]

Hi all,

I have an old HP d/top Pavilion 500 series computer, [os: xp home 2002, CPU: Intel Pentium 4, 2.4 GHz, RAM: 256MB, HDD: Western Digital, 40 GB]. I have had a lot of trouble with my xp which came installed with the computer. It has not been connected to the internet.

I found a site on the internet that offered a free licensed xp home. I downloaded this onto my USB drive, then burned a disk from the USB on another computer and then uploaded the disk to my computer.

The computer requires that I activte.  Unfortunately, I can't. I hired a guy at $50 to look at it for me and all he could find was a message stating "invalid disk".

I can get into the welcome screen. The screen shows two os's on my HDD. One is my original xp which requires me to enter my password and the other, the
invalid disk.

My original xp was already activated before I uploaded the invalid disk. The invalid disk isn't activated but is licensed according to the site.

How can I get into my computer and get rid of the invalid disk?

Can anyone help please?

[BC_Programmer]

You need to either find/get the appropriate Factory Restore disc for the system, or purchase a Windows XP License.

You might be able to do so from your original XP Installation. Look for an HP tool for factory restore images. in the start menu for example. It may require you to burn a CD.

There is no "Free License" to Windows XP Home. What you downloaded and installed was a pirated copy and that is why it will not activate.

[DaveLembke]

How can I get into my computer and get rid of the invalid disk?

Can anyone help please?

If you need access to the data in the meantime until you get the Windows XP Home fixed on this system, you could use LIVE Linux CD or DVD as a way to access files on hard drive; however 256MB RAM is really small these days and most distros these days suggest 1GB RAM, and wont work on any lesser than 768MB or 512MB RAM. You might find that you need to find an older Linux distro that supports running on 256MB RAM. 10 years ago when I was introduced to Knoppix I ran that on a system with 256MB RAM. RAM is pretty cheap these days for older DDR 266, 333, and 400Mhz RAM. However if this system will never be used online and is for offline purpose only then you can run it without critical updates etc and SP0 or SP1a or SP2 etc and with just 256MB RAM if thats plenty for whatever you run on it.  Other option is if you still have a valid original key tag on your computer is borrow an oem XP Home disc from someone who has one and install clean this way and use your key to activate. If you dont connect this to internet to activate you will have to phone it in and have a pen and paper ready to write down the groups of numbers to enter into computer to activate by phone.

No matter how you install XP "legally" its going to require an activation either connected to a network to do it that way or to call it in and manually enter a activation code.