So I'm trying to put in a clean copy of XP Media Center on my Mom's Acer laptop (her current installation is kinda jacked) and I can't figure out quite how to do it.

I'm very familiar with putting together a PC and installing OS from scratch but my biggest challenge here is finding a XP Media Center disc without actually buying one. I still have the product key, it's on the sticker under the laptop.

So the million dollar question is: how/where do I get/buy a Windows XP installation disc without the product key (which I already have)?

You can call up Acer they should be willing to send you one for $10-$15 or so.

thanks for the advice....unfortunately according to Acer, recovery media is not available anymore for this laptop. Perhaps because it is almost 3 years old and Microsoft has halted support for Windows XP.

Time to just find an OEM copy of XP to buy and use that.

Time to just find an OEM copy of XP to buy and use that.

Looks like that's the only way to do this....thank God Windows XP OEM discs are not as expensive as Vista.

Edited July 28, 200916 yr by n_maher

I have a copy of Vista home basic you can have for $15 if you want it Raffy.

I have a copy of Vista home basic you can have for $15 if you want it Raffy.

Thanks Nate. Let me ask her is she still wants me to mess around with her laptop...she wanted me to a few weeks ago but hasn't complained since. Do you think an AMD Turion 64 X2 and 1GB of RAM will be able to handle Vista Basic?

1gig of ram is kinda pushing it for Vista, even if you turn off all the visual effects and basically make it look like XP.

Maybe it's time for another gig of ram then. Off to Newegg I go!

What Todd said, 2G would be better. But at least this is a fresh never installed version that you could then roll into a Win7 edition upgrade in a few months.

i have a few different copies of vista licenses + xp tablet 2005 edition + windows 7 rc.

no charge. i get them for free through msdnaa. just pay for shipping and i can send over the dvd/cd by thursday/friday.

take a look at the following. the flagged names are ones that i have already used up. unflagged ones are what i can get licenses for.

In case raffy goes looking for an OEM copy of XP, just make sure you get XP Media Center Edition as plain ol' XP doesn't have Media Center component built in. I'm not sure your XP MCE key will activate regular XP.

I had a similar situation recently. Bittorrent is your friend. It's not piracy, since you'd be registering it with the keycode already on the laptop. You can find the ISO file to make yourself a new XP MCE SP3 CD, and have it ready to go in an hour or two.

Yeah but depending on the ISO his Acer key won't work. For example OEM keys don't work with the retail iso and vice versa...

So look for an OEM ISO

thats what i get for being too general .

in some case keys only work with vendor specific oem discs/iso's.

Yeah, I think the correct translation of Todd's comment is:

Finding an iso that will work with your key is a crapshoot and will depend on a multitude of factors, i.e. don't hold your breath.

i.e. I'm 0 for 3 on this route so far. I currently own no windows computer whose registration key for the OS is the same as what's printed on the sticker. Looks like it's time to start saving backup discs, eh?

M$ Windows XP PRO MCE SP3 MULTI OEM Se7en Style EYE CANDY (06 14 2009) : Software > Windows - Other - Mininova

Have fun. Worked for the HP I used it on.