XP Disc

When i bought my new computer was i supposed to get a XP disc with it?
I have a serial number on the side of the case...

 

Who is the OEM?

 

not if you bought it at a retail store such as best buy or comp usa. They will have it preinstalled and won't give you a disk.

 

Thats unfortunate.
I guess i will just have to BURN one.

 

nah they never do it because an xp disk costs $200 its alot cheaper to just buy different cd keys then disks. So they preload it on there. And not everyone knows how to put windows on a computer.

 

The XP discs cost about $0.10 cents. The license to use the software is what costs so much.

 

well thats what i meant, to buy them from microsoft and get a liscense is like $100-200 depending on home or professional edition. But if your a business you can purchase just a key to have the ability to put it on multiple computers without getting in trouble.

 

that's called a corporate version, FYI.

What you mean to say and what you say are (in text) are almost 100% of the time two different things. You must be specific in your posts or you can cause confusion.. and you have..

 

If you can get hold of someones XP disc, you can do a slipstream of it ( http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstream_01.htm ) and as you already have a liscence (on the side of your PC) you can install it, completley legally.

Burning XP discs isn't illegal, in fact many companies who dont have a RAS server do it so they can install fully upgraded versions of XP on all their machines using a single Volume key (which is also legal). But as you don't have a volume key, and you have a retail version of XP (well hopefully) then you can have one "backup disc"

It's funny how people think that burning a XP CD is illegal since it says "do not make illegal copies of this disc" on the CD... but a slipstreamed copy of XP is perfectly legal as long as you don't distribute it

 

yeah well I think he gets what I mean.

 

Sure would have been nice if my question had been answered instead of ignored.

 

Re: shazam... your answer is...........

Thanks Halo.

Look through the Compaq tools. There is a Recovery CD/DVD creator. Take care, it can only be run once. If memory serves...its 1 DVD, or if not possible, 6 CD-rs.