installing xp upgrade onto New drive

Short version: How do I get XP upgrade to install around a request for an earlier OS disc?

I had a laptop with xp. I received a replacement disc for reinstalling, and did so. The laptop died years later. I used the upgrade disc to install onto a hard drive on an older desktop that had an old version of an NT server (2000 I think). Note: There are two drives on the desktop server.

The desktop ran fine. I used it for years. But, now it won't boot due to a corrupt config.says file. I tried recovery console, installing XP again, etc. To no avail.

So, I switched around the drives on the desktop and now the XP upgrade is asking for one of several Windows OS (operating system) versions (from NT to ME). Of course, I got rid of my NT disc a couple of years ago during a life purge moment.

Anyway, how do I get XP upgrade to install around this request for an earlier OS disc?

Thanks!

 

I will check but I am not sure you can as the upgrade disk REQUIRES the previous os.

edit:

if you can find someone with a full retail xp, then you can install that and use your product key, it is the key you paid for, if you find someone with an oem version of xp, then it has to be the same oem as your pc.

 

reply 2:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=449244

above thread says that you can install a clean install of xp with an upgrade disk, read through the whole thread.

 

thanks

Thanks for the replay. I'm looking for any of the OS disks listed by xp install. I'll read the thread listed above too.

 

ok let me know if you have further questions