You say, "I also confirm that a restore disc would highly likely not exist on an original 98 machine."
Agreed, I think this is very unlikely to be an option and even if it were my setup is now XP.
When you say, "Also I thought I better mention another issue.
The Xp disc you have. Does that work with the key (COA) that's presently installed?"
Don't know yet as the disk I bought has just arrived and I haven't opened it or tried it yet. Actually, after I ordered the new XP Home, SP2 from COMP-USA was when I got to wondering about a possible conflict and figured I'd better ask. I know, this is a little bit of the cart in front of the horse on my part here. Had a brain lapse or two, I guess.
And when you say, "...ie If you decide to do a repair, the key that's presently is being used, may not work with the disc you have...So basically you now have two keys. The one presently installed, and the new one."
You're on the money. That is exactly what I was afraid of and exactly what I was asking about. The XP presently installed is from the disk the previous owner installed and from the disk I don't have and the new disk I just got from COMP-USA is a complete brand new XP Home 2002, SP2 with a different serial# and license. I was just hoping that if I just needed the os disk for say an sfc run or for a repair install that it would not matter to the existing install what disk it came from when it asks for the disk and only matter that it was a legitimate original disk of the os. Since so far the existing install of the XP is glitch-free and stable, I don't want to have to re-install it unless I absolutely have to as I've heard and read many a nightmare about corrupted installs and BSODs from re-installs that I'm not in any hurry to do it. I just wanted the security blanket of having the full legitimate XP OEM disk directly from Microsoft in my possession for any problem eventualities.
Thanks much for the reply and for the keyfinder program. I'll extract my present install key# and do as you suggest and write it down for any later need I may have. As I said before, I know this present install is legitimate and recognized by Microsoft because I've gotten updates and patches from MS, no problem, so they confirm its legitimacy. I guess I'll just have to do a little exploring on my own with the new disk and see if I'm allowed to use it in how I hoped I would, but even if not I at least have a legitimate copy of my own and it was a valuable lesson learned in all of this for not too much $ as it only cost me $89.99+tax+S&H~$101.00. Since I like XP, I can always use it on this machine or another if I decide, so I'm ok with that. Only problem is, I still may be back on square1 and left with my original dilema of wanting to have backup support for the present install of XP on the Latitude but I'm not giving up yet. Thanks...Best to you...
