How to upgrade Dell laptop.

I have a Dell Latitude laptop with 98SE. I may have to go to XP before too much longer, but not sure how to accomplish that. I bought the Dell refurbished from "Computer Geeks" on the web. Of course, that is pretty much all I got - the laptop, power supply, external CD player and a few cables - NO CD's. The Windows 98SE key code is on an official MS lable on the bottom of the laptop. But, when the XP install wants something to show you do have a previous windows version, what do I do?

 

I purchased an upgrade (XP Pro with SP2 included), rather than the full version. A hell of a lot cheaper. Cost me AUD$117 (or around GBP 50). Installed it as a fresh install. When XP asks for proof of old W98 install, or whatever previous OS applies, I think it checks out for the key on the previous installed OS. My upgrade asked for me to load a previous CD as proof of prior ownership. Despite having 2 genuine M$ OS CD's (W95 and W98) and loading them on the same internal CD drive that I was using for the XP install, Xp/M$ refused to acknowledge them. I then tried the whole exercise again on an external CD drive on my laptop and, once again, XP/M$ refused to see them. Eventually I fitted my second hard drive back again and XP recognised the existing W98SE installation and away it went. So sometimes Xp will not recognise previous OS CD's in my experience. Bazza

PS: The W98 key is on a label under the computer as well, see previous post. Baz
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