Its that "MTGNecro desprately wants help getting his laptop to run better" time!

Originally Posted by MTGNecro

At this point...I think wiping and restarting might be a better idea. What can I do without the windows disk?

You could borrow one and use your product key with it. Any copy of Windows that's the same version as the one your PC came with would do.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

He's on a laptop, so likely he's got an OEM version of Windows, which is most likely more unforgiving than most versions.

I was able to reinstall Windows Vista on my laptop with a borrowed disc and my own OEM key. I used a retail disc with the OEM key, there was no problem at all.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by AcerBandit

Pretty sure that each Windows XP CD is pretty anal about which CD key is associated with it and won't let you continue installing the operating system without the correct associated key.

In my experience, Windows XP is only picky about what version of the OS you are installing. For example you can't install Windows XP Home from a disc that came with Windows XP Pro. You also have to have the right service pack on the disc to match your key. Some keys are specifically SP1 or SP2 keys, etc...

As long as it's exactly the right version, I've never had problems installing Windows XP from the same media on multiple systems, using the various keys associated with each system. If there's more to it than I know, I've just been lucky. However, I did assume that a relatively new system would have come with Vista.

There's nowhere I can't reach.