MS couldn't sell me a second license

[engrbill47]

I made the mistake of installing the "latest" MB drivers on my MSI Platinum motherboard. MS WIN XP seems to have a spyware program that detects thse changes and asked me to "re-register" my OEM software. Since I did not have my network connection up, I attempted to do it on the telephone. And because I am at least semi-honest, I let it slip that I had installed my copy of XP on two personal computers. After getting the MS Lecture (Thou shalt not use a single license on more than one PC), I was switched to another person who offered me a second license for a mere $184 US. I reluctantly agreed. He tried three times to enter my OEM XP disc's numbers into the re-authorization system and failed. He said that I would have to go and buy a copy of XP and start from scratch. I now have another copy of XP, but I cannot find the sage advice that this forum gave me on how to, step by step, re-install WIn XP. I have copied all of my "data" to CD's before the dreaded 3 day re-authorization period was finished (it expired last night). Is there any possibility of installing my new XP "over" the old one? Or am I stuck w/ formatting the entire system/ For those who need to know what my PC consist of, I have a MSI mother board, K7N2 Delta2 Platinum ,w/ Nvidia chips, an AMD 2.025 Gig processer, 2 gigs of 400 Mhz RAM, a DVD/CD writer/reader, 2 WD EIDE HD's and 1 WD SATA HD. Would you please assist me? I just need the steps to get the HD's formatted and the WIN XP installed. The HD's are 5 gig & 10 gig WD EIDE's and the SATA is a 80 gig.

 

[g-paw]

Your best off formatting, it's likely the only way you'll get the old registration/authorization out of there.