Hi all replaced my hard drive today but TRIED ( by MISTAKE to install xp home sp2) but its my sons disc and i dont have the product key but I have the Right disc and key but no cant delete the part loaded data from the wrong disc can you help please
thanks dave p Boot to the XP CD...
Delete the partition and then continue with setup...

If your machine has a product key it doesn't matter what CD you use as LONG as the versions match.Also, if you want to recover the original windows XP key that originally came with your son's disk, try this....


I have only tried it on a XP Professional CD, but it should work for the Home and OEM versions of Windows XP from restore disks.

To Find the Windows XP Product Key from the Windows XP CD:

1) Insert Windows XP cd into a working computer.
2) Exit the Autorun introduction.
3) Open “My Computer”
4) Right Click on the Windows XP cd-rom drive and select explore.
5) Open the USWXP32P_ZX folder. (It may be as a hidden folder. If you cannot locate the folder, you may also SEARCH for unattend.txt and mark “Search Hidden Files”.)
6) Open the sysprep folder.
7) Open unattend.txt

Your CD’s product key is contained within the unattend.txt file somewhere towards the BOTTOM, if I remember correctly.