to groul : why he should use the low-level format? if the HDD haven't bad blocks ? i think that this utility is capable damage disk in some cases
simly run FDisk from startup floppy and remove the XP's partition, or boot from XP's CD and use a built-in partitioner to delete the system partition and create a new one
Also, in the case of failure of installing the SP , there is no risk to damage the windows - simply at the beginning of installation the SP ,you'll get a following error message:
"The Product Key used to install Windows is invalid. Please contact your system administrator or retailer immediately to obtain a valid Product Key. You may also contact Microsoft Corporation's Anti-Piracy Team by emailing [email protected] if you think you have purchased pirated Microsoft software. Please be assured that any personal information you send to the Microsoft Anti-Piracy Team will be kept in strict confidence"
BLA-BLA-BLA @! LOL! Micro$oft is desperately trying to set the ALL people on the legal licensed software ?!. LOL!. Futile attempts , IMHO!.
-----------------------
and now to A-online:
if your XP's serial is beginning with "FCKGW-.." -then yes, you must use special tools to change the key or de-activate it temporarily.
Now I'll describe the steps:
1) first of all download (hmm...if you didn't yet
the SP1 using this link:
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...sp1_en_x86.exe
NOTE: The RIGHT file size is : 140 440 152 bytes
2) using the ViewkeyXP program, see your XP's key and try to find it in the "WinXPCorpInvalidCDKey.pdf" file. (of course if your XP is a CORPORATE version, i.e. when you've installed it, the OS didn't ask you for activation. If yours is NOT CORPORATE, then i suppose that you must use the "xp-cd-changer.zip" to change yours key to a valid key before installing the SP). If yours XP key is NOT in the BLOCKED LIST, so there is not any barrier to install the SP
If yours XP is CORPORATE and you've founded your current key in the BLOCKED LIST - then you must use the "xp-cd-changer.zip" to change it to a valid key. Using that tool is very simple - just run it and read the instructions, but BEFORE running that tool, don't forget to take a VALID CD-KEY from the following file : "WinXPCorpValidCDKey.pdf", use any from the mess of numbers. for example i've used the following number :
22DVC-GWQW7-7G228-D72Y7-QK8Q3 , so i can confidently recomend it for use (I have successfully installed the SP just a 15 minutes ago
)
3) and after changing the key, you can easily
install the SP.
and in the end, i want to pubish the links for all mentioned files. The links are local, in the Armenia , so if you should have the problems with getting them, write me right here, in this forum, and i'll find another way to give you them
.
1) "ViewkeyXP"
http://users.freenet.am/~plughead/viewkeyxp.zip
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2) "WinXPCorpInvalidCDKey.pdf"
http://users.freenet.am/~plughead/wi...validcdkey.zip
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3) "WinXPCorpValidCDKey.pdf"
http://users.freenet.am/~plughead/wi...validcdkey.zip
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4) "xp-cd-changer.zip"
http://users.freenet.am/~plughead/xp_cd_key_changer.zip
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uff, have tired writing at late night , i'm gonna to sleep now..
good luck !
XP servicepack 1
