I am currently running XP home on my hp pavilion, and my work computer is a dell running xp media centre, but i lost the cd. so i rang up dell and they were very helpful in sending me a new recovery cd for xp media centre....
I would like to know if I can upgrade to media centre (on my hp pavilion) using the reinstallation cd from my work dell computer.
So far my google research says that the cd will not work if my computer is not a dell....
but i don't know if it will work on my HP pavilion, even if I have the COA from my work computer, so technically i own it.....
Thanks alot

Jonno

Nope, if the CD is the usual one Dell supplies, it is not a WinXP install CD.

A Dell Recovery CD actually uses the C:\i386 folder contents to recover your system. That folder has the actual WinXP Setup and files in it.

Then again, they could have changed policy since we last ordered from Dell.

More importantly, license violation! The software is licensed for one PC. Windows Update would most likely detect that you put the OS on two systems. That is what the "Validation Tool" in Updates is for, validate that you have a legal copy on a given PC.

Most Dell cd's look for a Dell BIOS. When it isn't found, it'l spit out an error.