Windows XP

[Carl the Llama]

Well iv had alot of problems with my PC so I decided to reinstall XP and that's where I ran into my little problem, I lost my cd key and so I have decided to purchase a new os and was wondering if you people knew of a place that sells windows xp pro sp3? If so could you let me know, i'd be eternaly greatful.

Oh and fyi the cheapest iv found it is £35.

[Mirage]

Are you sure the key isn't printed on a sticker somewhere on your computer?

[NeoTifa]

Did you lose the backup cd's that came with the computer? The code should be a sticker on there. You can ... "acquire" ... a code on the interwebs... :shifty:

[Namelessfengir]

whats your computer? if its a dell the code should be on the case somewhere. there is a program you can download that will find the key for most windows programs. dont remember the name though ill check

edit yeah get belarc advisor (www.belarc.com/free_download.html). install and activate it will scan your computer and open a webpage giving you a report of everything on or in your computer. on the left hand side click software licences and for the your os the key in in parenthesis

[Carl the Llama]

Its a home made PC, and my friend got me the disk and the code cheap but it didnt reconise my hdd as being 500GB (long story) so I now need somthing more up to date hence sp3

[Namelessfengir]

use belarc it will show you the cd key code

[Mirage]

How large does Windows show your HDD to be? Chances are you don't have to reinstall.

[Carl the Llama]

It shows my hdd as 200, also I cant do anything on my PC as I started to reinstall XP when I discovered the code to be missing.

[Mirage]

If it's showing 200 GB, it is definitely not got anything to do with windows not being updated.

[Carl the Llama]

No you misunderstand, the hdd will only reach its full potential when I install windows xp with either sp2 or 3, this is what was told to me by the company that sold the hdd, regardless of wether or not it is updated after the initial instalation.

[Mirage]

Saying that sounds strange would be an understatement. There should be absolutely nothing limiting the size of your hard drive, except the lack of support for larger than 128 GiB (Fixed in either SP1 or SP2), or you having a BIOS that doesn't support LBA 48. Both these issues would limit the size to 128 or 137 GB. A limit of 200 GB is to me unheard of.

A reinstall of the OS shouldn't be needed either, you should have been fine by using the disk manager to partition the newfound space after installing SP1 or SP2.

[Carl the Llama]

Your right of coarse, I thought it did say 200 but now iv checked it is actually 121GB, are you saying there is a way to get my pc to recognise the full potential?

UPDATE: iv found the code but it once again it has limited my hdd to 121, if you could tell me how I could expand the rest of my disk ill have your babies.

[Mirage]

Well if you didn't have SP1 installed along with XP when you first put in your HDD, you might have partitioned the HDD with just the size XP could first see. You should go to Disk Management and see if you have some unpartitioned space there. You can find Disk Management under Computer Management, which you get to by right clicking "My Computer" and select "Manage". If you can't see the total space there, your BIOS might not support large hard drives. In that case I will need the manufacturer and model name of your mainboard.

[Namelessfengir]

yeah you might need to flash your bios but damned if i remember how to do it

[Mirage]

depending on the mainboard it can be really easy or really risky :p