Help! I have OEM key but no OEM CD w/cab files to reinstall

[ylekiot1]

Ok. Here's the deal. I have some laptops that were donated to my wifes foundation. a20m, a21m and a22m thinkpads. I found power supplies and docking stations for them. I have the windows 98 OEM key on the bottom of the laptop. However, I only have a retail version of windows 98. The retail version of win98 will not take the oem keys(same with the reverse). I do not have a restore cd with any of these laptops.

My goal is to get these running with windows 98 and then sell them for fundraising purposes. I can make more $$ if I have 98 running on them.

Either way, the key will enable the person to buy the xp upgrade $99 instead of the full version $175.

Does anyone know where I can find a 98 oem cd or a thinkpad recovery cd that has the cab files on it? Or did the ibm recovery cd not have the cab files on it?

I have looked at Ebay but they only have driver files on the listed self made "recovery cd's", not the ones from ibm.

Thanks in advance for your direction or advice.

[LtTPfan]

I've read some posts here about folks buying recovery CDs from IBM for about $40. I believe you would be legally required to buy a set for each machine. I imagine you could find new surplus Win98 disks fairly cheap.

BTW, Microsoft is very philanthropic. If your wife's foundation is not-for-profit and has the appropriate tax status (I can't remember the form no.), I suspect MS would provide what you need as a donation. One of my sons is a Microsoft employee, and I solicited a nice donation from them for my college student association's raffle.

[DIGITALgimpus]

You can likely call IBM support and order recovery CD's. You'll most likely shell out about $40 for them though.

[dsvochak]

According to the IBM site ( http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4M7HWZ ) recovery CD's for Windows 95, 98, 98SE, NT, Me, and 2000 are no longer available. You could try posting in a "Wanted" in the User for sale/wanted to buy section.