I wanted to know if I could use the product key for my Emachines t1220 windows xp, with a computer I want to replace it with that's OS died and wouldn't repair... If I can, please tell me how? If I can't any ideas on how I can get windows xp back on the other machine? (it doesn't have a product key on it, it was scratch built by a friend a few years ago, and he gave to me when he got a new one a few months ago.)
This goes against the EULA that you agreed upon on the Emachine. Vista/XP OEM/RETAIL is one per machine. The OEM is is (for XP and Vista) per and locked to the motherboard. If you want it on a different machine you have to buy a new license. Your friend should have give you his Windows XP license, now you are stuck in buying a Vista in the hope the machine can run it, as you can't buy XP anymore.
It is likely that eMachines used OEM copies of XP which use a method called "system locked preinstall" or SLP for short. This system uses information from the SMBIOS tables that is typically static (read only) along with a couple keys to verify that the mainboard is an OEM model and the key is for that OEM. So it runs XP without activation. I don't know if MS would allow you to reactivate your copy of XP on another machine for a nominal fee, or no fee. That would be up to them if you call. Occasionally, they have been lenient on the issue. But seeing as this is an OS transfer from an OEM machine (where the OEM payed very little for the license) to an end user created machine where the licence would be much more expensive, I doubt they will help you. It may be possible to find copies of XP still in some channels, MS has not totally dropped support for it, though, they are after a limited market segment. The big reason the EEE was Linux based is that the hardware requirements for Vista were more than the little system could handle (more ram, lots of HD space, a bit heavy in the the CPU department too). Since they couldn't get XP, they went with Linux. MS saw the missed opportunity, and has been doing limited releases of XP for netbooks and UMPCs. But I have not looked into the licence terms and if you run the risk of deactivation, plus there is the additional issue of getting a counterfeit copy as well.
Ah what I was afraid of... I will try and get the key from my friend but I doubt he has it.. will piss me off if I have to use 'nix on a way better machine.. and/or have to buy xp when it had a perfectly good copy on it, it just died :/
