Reinstalling WinXP on new HD

I am about to install a new HD on my mother-in law's computer. She has WinXP on her old drive but has no install disc. I have downloaded Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder 1.41 to recover her registration code. My question is this: Can I use a different XP disc for the install and use her original code to register it? Will Microsoft recognize it? Thanks for any help.... Lawman

 

It should have a product key sticker somewhere on the case. Does it have a recovery partition? If so, it should have an option to burn it to CD/DVD as recovery discs and that could be used to reinstall. Your question? Yes, if you have a valid license and the product key that goes with it. Without those it won't activate. It would have to be a disc with the same OS (Home or Pro) and the same license type (retail or OEM - that info would be on the license sticker) to work.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll be installing from the same type of disc (XP Home OEM) so I suppose it should work. The worst that could happen is that I will have to re install the old HD again. Problem was that she had WinXP and a ton of music files on an old 5.5GB Drive. She couldn't figure out why everything she did took forever to load up! I'm putting in a 80GB drive that should do the trick. Thank you for the advice. Lawman