Windows ghost image questions and concerns.

Dcully

Hi guys ,not so much a problem but a major concern if i run into trouble.
A friend of a friend built my gaming rig 11 months ago,great machine very happy with it etc.
Only thing is i have no restore discs at all.
I rang him about it and he directed me to G drive which is a little over 4GB partition which includes a folder called Ghost.
Fair enough i assumed this is my ghost image of windows.
Having no experience with ghost images before im somewhat confused and worried for when i need to reinstall windows and format etc which id like to do as its almost a year now since and sort of format.
A recent windows update has left a small star type icon on my bottom right of taskbar and when i click on it it says my system is at risk as its not a genuine copy of XP.
Windows updates fine etc but this star remains.

My concern is if i run into trouble i have no windows XP disc or any other resore disks.
Is the only answer to purchase a geneuine windows xp package?
How does this Ghost folder actually work?
Does it contain a windows install feature and can i burn it to disk?

Dcully

Ok i had a root around and came across my windows XP home disc from my last pc.
Would it just be a case of installing windows from this disc and then cpu and motherboard drivers?
I have the discs for them.

RangeR

Efioanaes wrote:

Ok i had a root around and came across my windows XP home disc from my last pc.
Would it just be a case of installing windows from this disc and then cpu and motherboard drivers?
I have the discs for them.

Yes, and all other drivers that you may need, network, modem, sound, graphics etc.

I'd be more concerned about your little "star" in the taskbar, though.

snappieT

A friend of a friend built my gaming rig

I hope your "friend" only charged you for hardware, 'cos you got dodged otherwise. And the same thing will happen again if you reinstall without a good licence key.

The XP Home disc from the last PC: what brand PC is it? Chances are it won't let you install on your new machine. Furthermore, it wouldn't be legal to, since most straight-from-the-box PCs have OEM licences, that you can't really transfer onto another PC, because it's linked to the hardware of the original PC.

tommycahir

If i remember correctly te little star is telling you that your copy of windows is not an original.

If you have a ghost image of your PC then I would recommend speaking to your friend about getting him to re-install the ghost image.
Make sure that you have backed up all your data before he does that though.!

and before he does that make sure that he has indeed used a genuine version of windows XP.

Dcully

The XP Home disc from the last PC: what brand PC is it? Chances are it won't let you install on your new machine. Furthermore, it wouldn't be legal to, since most straight-from-the-box PCs have OEM licences, that you can't really transfer onto another PC, because it's linked to the hardware of the original PC.

Last pc was a custom built pc ,built by elara.ie .
It is a genuine disk with key.

Capt'n Midnight

Efioanaes wrote:

Last pc was a custom built pc ,built by elara.ie .
It is a genuine disk with key.

if it's an OEM license it's bound to that PC and can't be used on the new one.