Windows XP Pro Upgrade Disk

[cmcbridejr]

I do not know where to turn to, as I don't think there is a WindowsRumors site, so I am hoping my fellow Mac users can help me with a Windows issue.

I am trying to do a clean install of Windows on a friend's HP laptop, as it is performing poorly. However, she only has the Windows XP Pro upgrade disk. The original Windows XP Home disk that came with the HP has been misplaced.

Will it be possible to do a clean install with just the upgrade disk? We still have the license for the original disk, just not the actual physical disk.

Please only answer if you are sure, as I do not want to mess up my friend's laptop anymore than it is. Also, I do not want to resort to BitTorrent or anything like that.

Thank you in advance.

 

[cmcbridejr]

I found out that HP puts a recovery partition on their laptops so that was the reason she did not have the original install disk (seems like a waste of hard drive space if you ask me).

Anyway, I reformatted the hard drive using the recovery partition with no problems and the laptop now runs very smoothly. When I showed her the difference, she hugged me and was so happy.

Just thought I would let anyone who is having a similar issue know.