A31p recoveryless install of XP

[BeemerBiker]

Long time A20m user, I just got my first A31p from a liquidator. No disk drive but has COA for XP Pro. I got a 60gb disk and want to put XP Pro on it. Shall I go for the $45 recovery disks I read about in another thread? I have an old OEM XP Pro Service Pack "Zero", can it go in and accept the Microsoft/IBM COA? I also have a blue and a green dell XP Sp2 and Sp1a respectively. That wont work I dont think. I have slipstreamed before, but never to a computer other then the one the cd was bought for.

Am I legimately licensed if it came with a COA? I checked the warranty and it went out just 6 months ago. If I am legimately licensed is it permissible to install a corporate version of XP in lieu of buying the recovery cds?
Where I work we have an IBM Thinkcentre, same date of manufacture as my A31p, but not a pentium "m". Not sure if I creat recovery cd's if they would work.

..thanks..

[JHEM]

Am I legimately licensed if it came with a COA?

Yes, the COA is your license to install and use XP. However, MS doesn't make using generally available media to recover your system easy.

Get the recovery CDs either from someone here in the Forum or on eBay. I just purchased a factory set of CDs, not copies, for my T60P off eBay for only $26.75.

Yes, a corporate version would work as well, although it won't accept your OEM COA in lieu of the corporate license. Unless you own the corporation don't use up one of their licenses.

James

[k2jsv]

If you send me your address you could have a set of A31p recovery disks.

[BeemerBiker]

Solved: Turned out that a Dell XP Sp2 cd "green colored" for one of their notebooks actually worked. I was also told that a "generic oem cd" would work too. I have some old "Sp Zero" generic but I tried the Dell first and when it asked for the serial number it got activated immediately. The files on this cd were dated 8/12/2004 and I ended up haveing to activate it twice. The first time i did a repair install and ended up with an "E Boot" instead of "C" This caused problems with existing programs so I went and reinstalled and deleted the old partition. I had to re-activate but there was no problem and I didnt have to call in and it took the IBM COA just fine. XPINFO shows a fully licensed system with all [x] where they are supposed to be.

James: thanks for your offer. Check your inbox for a PM.