XP partial install and how to bypass

[dwgreene]

A client of mine has a Dell 8500 that originally came with XP Home Edition. She was having problems and took it to Geek Squad.

When it came back it was still not working.

Problem:

Looks to me that the Geek Squad partially installed XP Pro SP1. Note I said partially. It boots and wants to complete the install. Asks for the XP Pro SP1 CD. Mine don't work, not to mention she has no license for it. Since it does not get the CD it's asking for it will reboot and directly back to the same location and loop again. I've run diagnostics and everything is a pass.

The question: I have yet to find anyone that knows how to bypass this. This includes Dell, Microsoft, engineers I've worked with for 25 years. Currently my only solution is to repartition and reload which I don't want to do.

All help appreciated.

Wes

[EzyStvy]

Take it back to Geek Squad comes to mind

But other then finding another OEM or Retail XP Pro cd (to match whatever they used) AND Keycode - its a messed up deal.