after more hours then I like to think about ( I am stubborn sometimes ) I
just ran system recovery, must say I was impressed, did not ask for a key
OR to re activate. May change my mind about Compaq's.
You were lucky then. Compaq system recovery CDs normally ask for keys, and
more importantly, often don't work. In fact, I've found they work about
25% of the time.
Here's a strange twist. I just made an XP install CD using a XP-Home OEM CD
that came with my son's HP laptop and slipstreamed it with SP2. This was in
preparation to doing a repair install on his laptop. To test the new CD, I
installed it to a spare partition on my home-built desktop. Not only was the
install successful but it never asked me for the CD key! It did want to activate,
though.
Gary VanderMolen
