What constitutes an XP license?

[ConLog]

My wife's uncle gave me an older computer which has a messed up XP installed on it.

This computer does NOT have a recovery partition on it and he said he threw the XP disc in the trash.

The PC has all the relevant product keys etc attached.

Now, this is the tricky part - I have another XP disc and have programs which will change the product key etc to the same as the missing disc - and do a fresh install.

Am I circumventing copy protection because I am changing disc product keys or am I staying within the law because the license key is still valid to that PC?

With this thread I do not want to open a debate, I'd simply like a simple answer to a complicated question.

TIA.

Colin.

[doubledragon5]

You can use another copy of Xp, and use the license on the machine. The only difference is you will have to activate that copy.. I have a 8yr old dell, lost the original dell disk, so I used another copy of XP I have for my daughters machine, and just used the key from the side of the case on the dell.. Had no problem just activated it like I said..