Buying Windows

Guys, I would like to buy an original full Windows pack (not yet sure which version, but that's another story) and find myself confused about a few things:

1) I found some sites sell a 'License' for a pretty cheap price - what the hell is that? I've also found an option to buy a full package with a CD and key, but no COA (so what is the difference between COA and a key???)

2) I thought about buying Windows XP (which for various reasons I hate, so will probably stick to W2K) but have found two versions (with VERY different prices i.e. Windows XP Home Full Edition, and also the Full Edition OEM. The latter is almost a 100 bucks cheaper - what's the difference????

3) Why are the upgrades more expensive that the full version originals? Call me weird, but that seems illogical.

4) has anyone ever bought their operating system (and would recommend the experience!) over eBay? I am based in UK so am not sure whether the US-based software retailers will be able/willing to ship the software to UK without ripping me off on the shipping.

5) My laptop has no in-built CD drive. I can connect an external CD drive via a USB port, but it does not appear to be bootable. How do I therefore install the new Operating System from a CD (I presume the original opsys was installed on the laptop via a network connection??)

Thanks in advance for your help

Wodnik

 

As far as the different pricing levels, a license by itself is basically just a serial number without the software, which is primarily for network systems where they can use one disk for multiple machines, and just buy extra licenses for the additonal ones. OEM versions are cheaper because they have no long warranty or personal tech support, just whatever you can find on the MS websites. They also save a few bucks on the fancy boxes and more detailed user manuals they include with the retail versions. That's why you may find a full install OEM version cheaper than a retail upgrade version.

As far as buying in the U.S., international shipping is expensive, and import/export paperwork can be a pain. Most wholesalers don't ship internationally. You'd likely still have to pay whatever VAT taxes apply; add shipping to that & you're probably better off buying local.

For installation, how large is your hard drive, do you have more than one partition on it, what OS is on it now, and do you need to run NTFS file system? I used to do diskless installs by copying the installation disk to the hard drive (preferably on a second partition), booting to a bootable floppy disk, and starting the installation manually from the hard drive folder. To do that on yours, you'll need at least a small secondary partition to put it on, as you'll have to do that before you format the C drive. And it will have to be in FAT32 format for a boot floppy to read it. I don't think a boot floppy will access the USB drive either. Partition Magic and some other disk management software can partition your drive without destroying what's on there now. I'm pretty sure you should be able to do this with Win2000, less sure about WinXP, as security issues are much beefed up in XP; they may not let you copy to the drive & install that way. Hopefully someone else will have a better idea about that.

You should contact the laptop manufacturer & verify that it's compatible with either Win2000 or XP, whichever you choose, and make sure all the drivers you need are available that work in that OS. Laptops are a bit specialized; not all of them will upgrade smoothly.

 

@ G.t.

Boy, I don't think anyone could have done a better job of explaination that you did there. Great work.

 

May I ask for further advice G.I.?

G.I. That's indeed a great explanation- thanks! Can I seek your further advice please...My setup is a Toshiba Portege3440CT. It has no inbuilt floppy or CD, but has a 5GB hard disk of which, 1.3GB is free and could potentially be partitioned (I think). It also has one USB port which I can use either to connect an external CD drive or a 64MB USB memory stick. I got the laptop from my previous workplace. For various reasons, (accumulated garbage, registry screwed up etc) I need to do a clean install. Presently it runs W2K Professional v 5.0.2195. I have a W2K CD and activation key, but the CD got badly scratched so I it is unusable and therefore have to buy a new one (don't need fancy box or manuals though!Q: what is the difference between key and authorisation code? I know I have the key for sure) I have XP installed on my other laptop, but found that I have problems with using the infrared port (probably related to some glitch in XP?) and also I have something similar to Laplink software which seems to disagree with XP, so W2K is my preferred choice. How would you suggest I proceed? i.e. no floppy, but a USB port?

 

Call MS and they can possibly replace the CD.

 

Woodnik, you've got a tough one. Laptops are more of a challenge than desktops. I suspect Toshiba loaded the original software to the drive directly before it was installed in your computer. I didn't know that you didn'thave a floppy drive in it either. Having no floppy and no bootable cdrom drive makes it impossible to install to a blank hard drive, as nothing is going to access the drive from the outside. Probably your best hope for the cleanest install would be to uninstall all your secondary programs either from their "uninstall" routines or through Add/Remove Programs (assuming you've got the disks to re-install after the cleanup), then do a repair installation, with a new disk of exactly the same operating system. Since you've got Win2000 on it, and intend to stay with it, that should work. It will clean up your registry and other operating system things that may be messed up, but will install standard Windows drivers where you may have specific drivers from Toshiba, so check with Toshiba first for any and all special drivers that you need, and download those to a folder on the hard drive, where you can access them after the restore process. If the driver files are zipped, unzip them before you start, so they're ready to install.

As far as buying the disk, BOOM is right. Contact Microsoft and see if they'll issue a replacement disk, since you've already got an original with serial numbers etc. You may be able to get a replacement for just shipping and maybe a minimal charge for the disk. If they won't contact Toshiba and see if they will. Worth a couple of phone calls to see.

 

potential solution?

Actually, can you advise me if the following would work:

a) I have about 1.5GB left on th hard disk, so can I dynamically resize the harddisk using say PartitionMagic,
b) put W2K into external CD (plugged into laptop via USB
c) install from external CD W2K onto new partition (could you plese advise how I can do this)
d) copy all necessary secondary progs accross to new partition, and resizing it when full using partition magic until all have been transferred into new partition and the old partition is deleted

Plase advise if the above procedure is possible (and safe)...

Many thanks
Wodnik

 

You're into uncharted territory here, at least for me. At the very least, it would be risky, since the standard disclaimer, even for Partition Magic is "back up all your critical data before proceding", since failure IS a possibility, and in your case, failure would leave you with NO options for installing.

I see a few problems, even assuming Partition Magic can do the moves withoug damaging any files.
First is the NTBootloader that actually boots Windows 2000. That is installed in the boot track of your C: drive, even if Win2000 is a second OS installation on another drive or partition. And I don't know any way to modify it to show your Windows 2000 installation anywhere except where it was originally installed. So I don't think you could eliminate the C drive totally, period. Theoretically you could shrink it down to almost nothing, but once installed on D:, Windows 2000 will have to stay on D:, which will be forever somewhat confusing. When installing Win2K, it will see a Windows installation on C, and ask you if you want to overwrite that one or put it somewhere else. Tell it to install on D, and it will do so, and set up a boot option to let you choose which OS you want to boot to. Once 2000 is installed and running OK, you can tell it to boot to 2000 by default, and set the wait time to zero seconds, and it will boot to 2000 as if there were only one operating system installed. But I think you'd be stuck with a C drive.

Plus, secondary programs will need to be installed directly into Win2000, not just transferred over. I think Partition Magic can move file folders to different locations, and remap their locations in the operating system they're installed in, but for an entirely separate operating system, I think you'll have to install them fresh. Assuming you've got the install disks, that's not a problem, just a little extra work. The good news is that you could uninstall them from the C drive first, freeing up more space for your second partition at the beginning.

But having said all that, I think it's too risky to chance. It's very unorthodox, and if anything screws up, you've got an expensive paperweight.