recovery disc for xp

[handyman2]

a friend gave me a recovery disc for xp but not the product code numbers how can i get round this to use the disc on my computer any help gratefully appreciated

[jbennet]

does your computer have a COA sticker on it?

if its a branded pc, that will have the (valid) product key you purchased with that machine stamped on it

[mvmalderen]

What's your computer vendor?
Did Windows came pre-installed with your pc, in that case it came probably also with a recovery cd or a recovery partition (somewhere on your harddisk) ...

Consider looking it ('it' means 'how you have to restore your pc to the state in which it was bought') up in the support information of your computer, most computer vendors are hosting documentation on their sites so that can't be a big problem ...

[handyman2]

does your computer have a COA sticker on it?

if its a branded pc, that will have the (valid) product key you purchased with that machine stamped on it

it is a Time laptop(they went bust) i have product key for my computer but will the disc from another computer, thereby different product key work When i tried my product key computer said try again

[handyman2]

read reply to jbennet

[jbennet]

but will the disc from another computer, thereby different product key work When i tried my product key computer said try again

yes. The keys arent stored on the disk. Any valid key will work with any disk (all disks are the same)

Only time it wont work is if you try to use an XP Home key with xp pro or try to use an OEM (manufacturer) key with a normal retail disk or vice versa, thats probably your problem.