Hello;
I am coming to you as a last ditch attempt to get some useful advice. I bought a used computer that had xp pro already on it. My hard drive acted up and I bought a xp pro boot cd that says it will also install xp if needed. My hard drive had to be replaced and I started trying to install xp pro on the new hard drive. The installation gets to the point that it wants me to input a volume license product code and will go no further because I don't have a key. I tried to slave my old hard drive to a friends computer in order to get the code from it with various key finder programs, but the old drive says that it is not formatted and I get nowhere with that. I cannot get the computer to do anything other than continuously restart installation of xp pro and then halt at the code input. What I want to know is how can I get the OS onto my new drive, is there anything at all that I can do to fix this problem?

Basically it sounds like you bought a bootleg XP CD. You need to buy a legal copy now.

You can normally take it to a computer store, where they do put a legal and licensd copy into your computer for a fee. Or you can buy a copy that comes with a licenee number.

** and of courrse keep it forever.
This is one of the things you have to watch for when buying form private indivuduals.