I have an XP OS, can I reformat the system using a Vista "Product Recovery Dvd-Rom"?

[Kain the Blade Reaver]

I have an XP OS, can I reformat the system using a Vista "Product Recovery Dvd-Rom"?

A virus had corrupted some of my computer's files. Options on my Control Panel have disappeared on my XP, such as the Background and Appearance tab on the Display Properties. My computer runs generally much slower than it ever has since then, and cleaning the registry, removing useless programs, and removing malware can only do so much. I want to reformat my computer, but I don't have this specific computer's reboot disk, meaning I won't have an OS after the reformat. Can I use my friend's disk to reformat my hard drive and get Vista, too? This is what's labeled on the CD.

Product Recovery DVD-ROM, Support for these products provided by Great Quality, GQ5140, For Districution only with a New Great Quality PC, Windows Vista (TM) Home Basic 32-bit, English Version 1.0, Portions (C) 2007, Microsoft Corporation.

My fear is that the CD won't be able to be used with my Dell PC with an XP OS. Any alternative suggestions if this doesn't work?

 

[Greed...Is Good]

nope..upgrade cd

 

[Genius @ work]

no it wont work, best thing is newer pc's have the OS pre-loaded in the CMOS if it didn't come with an acutal recovery XP cd. #1 if no cd came with it, restart hit F8 right before the windows starting screen and restore your cd...#2 if your pc came with recovery cd, while in windows put the cd in the drive, restart and follow the prompts.

 

[payne747]

Vista is a seperate product then XP, you'll have to install it with your friends license key, and any updates\reinstalls you do to Vista in the future, may render the other installation of Vista unusable.

If you brought the PC within the last year or so and it came with XP, you'll have an XP license sticker on the bottom of the PC, you can then obtain a recovery CD from the retailer who sold it to you (you should have this already). That's the correct way to do it.