Change to XP OEM version without reformatting?

[Guest Beau Newcomb]

One of my end-users in all their glorious brilliance decided to

reinstall XP Pro SP1 (a version they had from home) and in the process

also removed the lenovo recovery partition. They've been using it

like this for a couple weeks now, have all their apps, etc, but they

are complaining that windows is going to expire soon. I know if I had

been able to do a normal restore from the restore partition, XP would

be automatically activated. I'm wondering if it's possible to run a

repair using a lenovo disk to get the right version on there that

won't expire or require activation? What are my options?

[Guest Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Re: Change to XP OEM version without reformatting?

 

You'll have to use the Lenovo recovery disc

and perform a destructive recovery which

will begin by reformatting the hard drive.

 

--

Carey Frisch

Microsoft MVP

Windows Desktop Experience -

Windows System & Performance

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

"Beau Newcomb" wrote:

 

One of my end-users in all their glorious brilliance decided to

reinstall XP Pro SP1 (a version they had from home) and in the process

also removed the lenovo recovery partition. They've been using it

like this for a couple weeks now, have all their apps, etc, but they

are complaining that windows is going to expire soon. I know if I had

been able to do a normal restore from the restore partition, XP would

be automatically activated. I'm wondering if it's possible to run a

repair using a lenovo disk to get the right version on there that

won't expire or require activation? What are my options?

[Guest smlunatick]

Re: Change to XP OEM version without reformatting?

 

On Mar 25, 8:20 am, Beau Newcomb <beaunewc...@gmail.com> wrote:

> One of my end-users in all their glorious brilliance decided to

> reinstall XP Pro SP1 (a version they had from home) and in the process

> also removed the lenovo recovery partition.  They've been using it

> like this for a couple weeks now, have all their apps, etc, but they

> are complaining that windows is going to expire soon.  I know if I had

> been able to do a normal restore from the restore partition, XP would

> be automatically activated.  I'm wondering if it's possible to run a

> repair using a lenovo disk to get the right version on there that

> won't expire or require activation? What are my options?

 

Lenovo "recovery" disks have an image of the drive at the time the

"PC" left their factory. It would completely erase the hard drive and

then "restore" the version of XP that the image stores. (It does not

do an formatting but erases everything.)

[Guest Beau Newcomb]

Re: Change to XP OEM version without reformatting?

 

On Mar 25, 10:18 am, smlunatick <yves...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mar 25, 8:20 am, Beau Newcomb <beaunewc...@gmail.com> wrote:

>

> > One of my end-users in all their glorious brilliance decided to

> > reinstall XP Pro SP1 (a version they had from home) and in the process

> > also removed the lenovo recovery partition. They've been using it

> > like this for a couple weeks now, have all their apps, etc, but they

> > are complaining that windows is going to expire soon. I know if I had

> > been able to do a normal restore from the restore partition, XP would

> > be automatically activated. I'm wondering if it's possible to run a

> > repair using a lenovo disk to get the right version on there that

> > won't expire or require activation? What are my options?

>

> Lenovo "recovery" disks have an image of the drive at the time the

> "PC" left their factory. It would completely erase the hard drive and

> then "restore" the version of XP that the image stores. (It does not

> do an formatting but erases everything.)

 

ok. thanks guys.. i was hoping to fix this without having to lose his

current install. lesson learned :) thanks