if i swap out hard drives to reinstall xp will it still restrict because of piracy?

[jupiter]

presario 2100
had xp home
already reformatted drive to reinstall a diff copy of xp then gets to that stupid screen that restricts my continue to install
if i swap hdrives will it still detect old restriction defaults?

[scouse]

If you have a copy of XP legal, then there is no problem at all installing it on a formatted hard rive..I cannot understand why you would have this problem.

ASs long as you boot up with the xp disc in the drive and follow the onscreen instructions all should go well.

What is happening when you try this?

[Miz]

Compaq puts a BOMID as well as crucial BIOS data on the harddrive along with the data used by the Recovery CD to re-image the drive (the Quick Restore CDs contain all the data needed to reinstall Windows but are no longer shipped with Compaqs. You have to call them to get Quick Restore CDs and they're not free). When you wipe the drive clean, that data is gone and is not replaced by a standard Windows installation. Getting things to work after that without using the CDs that came with the system is difficult, if not impossible.

However, if you look around online long enough, you can find ways to do it. I've researched it enough to know that I'm not willing to take the time so when a customer with a Compaq calls, if they don't have the original Recovery or, better yet, Quick Restore CDs, they're pretty much dead in the water until they call Compaq and get them.