Old systems - new OS installs.

[fleggett]

My apologies if this has been asked (and answered) a gazillion times.

Here's the situation. A co-worker has given me two boxes that need a clean install of both systems' OSs. According to him, they are riddled with viruses and too unstable to use. Both are prebuilt machines, so they came with OEM versions of XP home for one and Vista home for the other, with the stickers on the side of each system.

Unfortunately, my co-worker says the restore media for the pair are long gone. And for the life of me I can't find OEM images of XP and Vista through my "channels". Plus, I fear there are no images on the drives themselves (though I have yet to look, so I could be wrong).

I want to be legal about all this. I want to be able to (re)activate each of these and be on the up and up. I recently purchased a Technet sub and do have access to retail images. And I've read that the key, not the media, makes the difference in what version of Vista, and maybe XP, gets installed.

However, does that hold true for OEM versions? I was under the impression that OEM images contained code not found in retail images and that if you wanted to do something like this, you >have< to use, specifically, an OEM disc, not just any retail media.

Is that true? If not, then I suppose I'm good to go. If so, does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[criccio]

Why not just put that Technet sub to use and grab a Vista HP and an XP Home ISO and serial and be done with it?

 

[Joe Average]

Why not just put that Technet sub to use and grab a Vista HP and an XP Home ISO and serial and be done with it?

You were ok up to the "... and serial..." part there, which would go against the licensing terms of a TechNet subscription. The OP already stated they're not his PCs, so... now if he got that other person to grab a TechNet and used their TechNet-acquired media/keys, that might be kosher in some off-the-wall roundabout way...

 

[criccio]

Well ok, for the sake of argument.. that is true.

Anyway, lets be realistic, how many people really abide by that to such strict terms?

 

[fleggett]

Why not just put that Technet sub to use and grab a Vista HP and an XP Home ISO and serial and be done with it?

Well, from what I understand regarding key distributions with Technet subs is that you "only" get ten of them per OS version. People at work know me for fixing systems, so I occasionally get machines with corrupted/infected OSs that need complete wipes and I don't know if I want to start giving away keys like that. If these were "vanilla" boxes and the co-worker was really, really, really desperate, I MIGHT consider it, but they have perfectly legal keys already assigned to them, so it seems like a waste not to (try to) use them.

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

You just need oem copies of the software. You can also order recovery media fron th manufacture.
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[Joe Average]

Well ok, for the sake of argument.. that is true.

Anyway, lets be realistic, how many people really abide by that to such strict terms?

I wouldn't say it's about abiding by the terms as much as I'd say that suggesting people do things that are against the licensing terms could cause you a world of shit around here where they don't take kindly to piracy/warez talk, yanno...

 

[fleggett]

You just need oem copies of the software. You can also order recovery media fron th manufacture.

That's just it - accessing OEM images is proving very problematic. I used to be pretty good at getting ahold of stuff like this, but I guess as I age my ability to find such things is eroding. ;(

Ordering recovery media is a good idea. One is a Sony Vaio and the other is an HP, so both companies are still around. However, the co-worker (and I) wanted to get this done in the next few days, since he's now without systems, and ordering the media could take weeks.

I take it retail media won't work in cases like this? That there really is additional/different code on OEM discs?

 

[Ocellaris]

That's just it - accessing OEM images is proving very problematic. I used to be pretty good at getting ahold of stuff like this, but I guess as I age my ability to find such things is eroding. ;(

Ordering recovery media is a good idea. One is a Sony Vaio and the other is an HP, so both companies are still around. However, the co-worker (and I) wanted to get this done in the next few days, since he's now without systems, and ordering the media could take weeks.

I take it retail media won't work in cases like this? That there really is additional/different code on OEM discs?

I've used retail media and oem license stickers already attached to pcs to install windows on numerous setups. almost all of the pcs were dells, in case that matters. no idea how common this type of thing working is, I always presume as long as I used the license tag on the pc, it was fine.
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[fleggett]

I've used retail media and oem license stickers already attached to pcs to install windows on numerous setups. almost all of the pcs were dells, in case that matters. no idea how common this type of thing working is, I always presume as long as I used the license tag on the pc, it was fine.

Good, that gives me a lot of hope. However, did they activate okay? I can see the retail media accepting the key, but the activation part concerns me. If they don't activate via the online method, can you use the automated phone system for OEM keys?

 

[Ocellaris]

Good, that gives me a lot of hope. However, did they activate okay? I can see the retail media accepting the key, but the activation part concerns me. If they don't activate via the online method, can you use the automated phone system for OEM keys?

I've had 100% success with this, including activation. I was fairly surprised that anyone indicated this type of thing might possibly cause issues. Give it a shot, if it fails, you lost 45 minutes of time.
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[fleggett]

I've had 100% success with this, including activation. I was fairly surprised that anyone indicated this type of thing might possibly cause issues. Give it a shot, if it fails, you lost 45 minutes of time.

I had heard and read that OEM installs are tricky beasts when it comes to activating a (re)installed OS and that the restore media that comes with these machines is required if the machine ever has to be baselined. I've always had OEM images on-hand, so it's never been an issue until now (I must've deleted those images when I did some upgrades a few weeks ago, as it required a lot of file transfers). I'll definitely give it a shot, though. Thanks for the words of encouragement!

 

[Catweazle]

That's just it - accessing OEM images is proving very problematic. I used to be pretty good at getting ahold of stuff like this, but I guess as I age my ability to find such things is eroding. ;(

For Vista it shouldn't matter, as the install disks are identical for OEM and Retail. You should be able to use an OEM install key with a retail disk, and I've seen many, many people reporting success in doing so.

For XP the install disks (as long as you are matched for version (Home, Pro) differ ONLY in the PID value held in the setupp.ini file within the i386 folder on the disk. The entry in the setupp.ini file takes the form:

Pid=xxxxxxxx

As a general rule, for initial release XP, that''ll be:

XP Home Retail: 55277000
XP Home OEM: 55277OEM

XP Pro Retail: 55274000
XP Pro OEM: 55274OEM

So if you have only a retial install disk available, do the following to get an install disk which will work with the perfectly legitimate install key on the COA sticker:

Make an ISO of the disk
Use a suitable tool (ISOBuster?) to edit the relevent file inside the image
Burn the resultant ISO image to disk.

Bingo!



That will INSTALL using the key code on the COA sticker. It will NOT work for running a repair on an installation deployed with the original media accompanying the OEM machine, because the PID values become a bit more complex in that regard,


Oh! And you'll end up with a fully legitimate licensed installation, by the way. Legitimacy of license is determined by the install code used and the presence of the COA sticker. It does not depend upon what install media you use.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Anyway, lets be realistic, how many people really abide by that to such strict terms?

Seriously? My TechNet subscription was paid for by my company, and I'd be happy to pay for it myself it they didn't. Either way, I sure as hell aren't giving out the licenses to friends. If you don't see any issue with giving them out, then, if you have a TechNet sub, can I have a few of your unused licenses?

 

[fleggett]

For Vista it shouldn't matter, as the install disks are identical for OEM and Retail. You should be able to use an OEM install key with a retail disk, and I've seen many, many people reporting success in doing so.

Excellent! At that rate, redoing the Vista machine should be a breeze (knock on a lot of wood).

For XP the install disks (as long as you are matched for version (Home, Pro) differ ONLY in the PID value held in the setupp.ini file within the i386 folder on the disk. The entry in the setupp.ini file takes the form:

Man, that info was invaluable. Thanks +100. This is what eventually I had to do, as the retail image did >not< accept the OEM key on this particular machine.

I actually had to download a somewhat obscure program called ISO Master, as it was the only application I found that could directly edit files within the ISO itself (based on the Wiki entry for such programs). After editing the SETUPP.INI file to replace those trailing zeroes with "OEM", the key was accepted and I was able to activate the machine.

Incidentally, the ISO I'm using is called thus:

en_windows_xp_home_with_service_pack_3_x86_cd_x14-92413.iso

It's been awhile since I've dealt with XP, but I just could not believe the amount of updates available for it, even at SP3 level. It literally took me HOURS, with probably at least 10-15 reboots depending on the update applied, from IE8 to various .NET components. I thought it would never finish!

(Of course, a faster hard drive would definitely help.)

Anyway, thanks again for the extremely helpful feedback.