How to reinstall Windows, when no more OEM CD?

[vegemite4me]

A friend of mine has an EMachines PC, which came with Windows XP Home.

But, someone has installed a pirated verison of XP Professional onto the computer since they bought it (probably in an effort to fix an issue with the PC) I would like to correct this and reinstall a valid and legal version of XP Home on this computer (mainly so that they can now get updates from microsoft.com). The computer has one of those green Microsoft stickers on the back of it with a serial number.

However, they have lost the CD which came with the computer.

Does anyone know how I can reinstall XP Home on this computer? Will Microsoft or Emachines provide me with a replacement CD?

Thanks!
robin

(The computer was bought from PC World, and they have a high rate telephone number for support, which I'd rather hold off from calling as yet.)

[mcquiggd]

As you have the valid serial number, perhaps use a P2P download of a version of XP Home and just use the legal serial rather than one from a keygen etc... I would imagine that would work....

It certainly worked for me with my legal MSDN serials on my dads PC when someone (from PC World) had installed a hooky copy of XP Pro.

[VectraMan]

Not all serial numbers work with all CDs. I had this problem a while back; I had a valid code and a CD but couldn't get the two to work togther. In the end I acquired a dodgy version and used the proper code and it worked. Obviously I knew it was legit, just a case of a missing CD.

[mcquiggd]

I don't think that will be a problem with XP Home, as there will not be the VLK/ Corporate versions that you find with XP Professional that require a non-retail license...

Well, hopefully anyway

[Toad]

Does the hard drive have a hidden FAT32 partition ?
If it does, that's where the original preinstalled version of XP resides.
Press F11 (i think) at boot time and it should reformat the hard drive and reinstall XP.

[TheMonkey]

If you have a valid OEM key, download a Windows XP 10-in-1 from Bittorrent. They have the usual XP Home OEM mode installation on them that should work with the key.

Beware though - some manufacturers have their own serial code range so this still may not work.