Quick OEM XP Reinstallation Question

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atrice

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I have an OEM machine that shipped to me with only an XP recovery disk. I recently bought a new motherboard and after some reading have realized that performing a repair installation of XP from a recovery disk is (correct me if I'm exaggerating) impossible. Creating a slipstream disk from a recovery disk is possible (again, correct me if I'm wrong), but even so it doesn't guarantee that the reinstallation of the OEM version of Windows will go smoothly (as compared to having an actual XP installation disk).

I bought the motherboard because of stability issues with my current machine. My question is this: assuming the things I've said above are correct, is it worth it to try and install the board and then reinstall my OEM version of Windows in order to improve this machine for the next two years, or should I just forget the whole thing (and wait until I have gotten a new machine, in which case this will be irrelevant)? I'm leaning towards the latter, as I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle that this reinstallation might bring (and I think I could do without this new motherboard).

Thanks for any opinions/ideas.
 
Did you actually try booting your recovery CD and see what options it offers? There are many kinds of those and you have get the repair option right there.

You can always "borrow" an XP OEM CD (any brand will do - XP OEM keys are universal) and do the repair install from that. (No legal issues since you have the license for an OEM XP - the sticker on your computer). You should get one with the same service pack you had installed to make sure things go smooth but it should work to some extent with any version.
 
I have only tried inserting the CD, not booting from it, and it does offer a repair install. This probably means that it will offer the repair if I boot from it. I'll give that a try.
 
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