Purchasing Windows O/S XP Pro- what does branded mean? What do I look for?

[Etaria]

Hello everyone...

I have a home built computer and since my bf left it is up to me to upgrade it etc.. anyway I bought a new hard drive for my son and installed it fine and installed his O/S.

Now I bought myself a new hard drive but need an O/S since I do not have CD's and have no idea how my now ex got an O/S on the old one...

I have been looking on ebay etc at OEM Windows XP Pro.. but I do not understand what to look for. I want legal O/S... and I see some say branded or unbranded. I see one which is cheap price, the guy says it has never been opened nor has product key ever been used.. says he got it from Intel. Does this mean it is branded, and if so is this legal? What is the difference?

Sorry if mundane question.. but want to make sure I buy the correct thing and do not want to make wrong decision because one is cheaper than another.

Thank you in advance- anything information or explanation you can provide would be great! :angel:

 

[RealBlackStuff]

To stay legal beyond a doubt, go to the likes of www.newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/SubCategory.asp?SubCategory=368

If you have an old W98 or ME or W2K lying around, get their retail XP-Home Upgrade for $99.99

If not, get a full OEM version of XP-home for $86.95 (on special till 11/21/05)
Both include SP2.

 

[Etaria]

I do have ME... but! i cannot find the product key for it... and Microsoft everytime I call gives me the same thing .. that they have no product keys available and will take 24 hours to generate and to call back.. so I call back.. same thing.. so it has been going on for a week.. 3 days ago I called and they said now to give it a week! So i am about to throw up my arms and just buy a full version...

I keep getting the icon in the tray saying i am low on space.. I have like 180mb free...(currently have a 40 gig harddrive in there) and I have a 160 gig hard drive waiting to be installed just need the o/s... i see newegg has xp pro on sale for $137 which includes shipping.. which is about what i have been seeing on ebay.. but saw one on ebay for 120 and figured I would save 20 dollars but the guy says it is from intel- hence my confusion on the branded thing...

but! hmm wonder if newegg takes paypal... i don't get my debit card for another week and sale will be over by then...

 

[patio]

Personally i would not purchase software on EBay...even if i was saving 50 bucks.

patio.

 

[Samstoned]

bought 4 legal copys off of ebay no problems
new in retail box is what to look for
check seller feedback
man the deals I get
xp pro last year 129+shipping
2year ago W2K server 55+ shipping
would not buy upgrad kits they may have limits
so like you ned a clean install after a upgrade not going to happen
I have also purchased OEM for even less,just make sure it's not a dell or gateway specific oem.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

I want legal O/S... and I see some say branded or unbranded. I see one which is cheap price, the guy says it has never been opened nor has product key ever been used.. says he got it from Intel. Does this mean it is branded, and if so is this legal? What is the difference?

I guess in this case unbranded means OEM version, and branded means retail version.

The OEM version is usually sold at half the price of the retail version, but the catch is that you have to buy it with a computer component, like a hard disk drive.