You may need some more disks as I believe that if you have an OEM key, it
will not work with a retail disk and vice versa.
Louis

"Bruce--M" <bruce9950********.com> wrote in message
news:e1LpEDH$JHA.200@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> haha......... I thought I might get some better answers but I'll do it the
> long way.
> I've got ...
> XP Pro disk
> XP Home disk
> XP Pro VLK disk
> Windows 2000 disk
> so........ I'll just start installing one at a time until that key works
in
> it.
> I WILL come back & let you know.
> I'm not even going to answer some of those replies.
> It was an ex-business computer that had zero's overwritten.
> Thanks.
>
>
>
>
> "VanguardLH" <V@nguard.LH> wrote in message
> news:h2lv79$pfk$1@news.albasani.net...
> > Bruce--M wrote:
> >
> >> I bought a 2nd hand computer recently & it looks like the LEGAL product
> >> key
> >> has been cleaned with some solvent.
> >> I can very clearly see the full code.
> >> The HD was formatted.
> >> I CAN NOT read if it's XP Home, XP Pro or even Windows 2000.
> >> Is there some way I can find out?
> >> The key starts with ........
> >> HDBY3-H3X49-49PWX- etc
> >
> > If the restore image for the OS was in a hidden partition, is it still
> > there? Formatting works on partition boundaries, not across the entire
> > hard disk. So it is possible the hidden partition is still there. You
> > will need to follow the instructions for the computer to find out how
> > the OS gets installed.
> >
> > If a restore image is not in a hidden partition, and if the seller did
> > not surrender the installation media, then the OS was *not* included in
> > the sale. What you bought was just hardware. So now you'll have to buy
> > Windows (or use a free Linux variant).
>
>