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how do I delete xp pro that is password protected

P

powerup

Member
My school gave me a 5 year old comp that they did not need anymore. It has win xp pro on it and it is password locked. I cannot get into anything on it. Is there a way for me to delete the hard drive with out knowing the password?
 
You could always insert either a Windows XP bootable CD and boot into the setup process and format the drive that way, or even boot from the 6-disk XP floppy setup if need be. It will give you the option to format the drive.

Alternatively you could always hook it up as a slave drive and format it that way, on another system.
 
Do a clean install of Windows by booting from the Windows XP CD. When it gets to the point where it asks you what partition to install Windows in, you have the option of deleting any existing partitions. Delete all the existing partitions and then create a new one and install Windows into it.
 
Well I used my own xp home upgrade disk. It worked perfectly. This is a 5 year old emachine 900 mhz. It was given to me because it is so outdated and my school upgraded. I really dont want to pay any money for this thing. I just want it as a play toy. Just to mess around with it. I am now running this os on two machines. what happens at the end of 30 days if I do not activate xp on this machine? I know it is illegal to have one liscence of xp on two machines. I just dont want to buy a new copy for something I dont plan on using for very long. By the way how well do E machines overclock? hehe!
 
Powerup: Just activate it. Legally Microsoft wants you to buy one copy of an OS per computer. Realistically they allow you 4 or 5 internet activations on different computers without any hassles. After that you have to call for an activation and that's usually not a problem as long as you don't admit to violating the EULA. Tell them you're a gamer and upgrade your system every 6 months.

 
I did activate it last week and no problems. Mr. Gates has yet to show up at my door. This is the 5th or 6th time I activated it. First time on a second comp. Thanks for the info.
 
Do you mind explaning to a doofus like me what activation means? I just installed WinXP Pro SP1 and afraid to update it or "activate" whatever that means.
 
Don't be afraid, just activate it. It will generate a unique key for your computer. This is to prevent you from giving the CD to someone else and having them install XP on their computer and then them handing it to someone else... and so on.

You can re-activate on the same computer as many times as you want with no problem. If you radically change your hardware it will require re-activation. If you install it on a different computer it will require activation. You're only supposed to install it on one computer at a time, but Microsoft relaxed their restrictions to allow a desktop and a laptop (as an example). In the real world Microsoft allows around 4 or 5 different activations before having you call to explain. As long as you're not doing 20 activations a week it's no problem.

More info: http://www.z123.org/techsupport/xpwpat.htm
 
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