Can I give buddy a copy of my WinXP CD?

You're better off using a Dell Windows XP CD. If you use yours, you'll have to call MS to activate. Are you sure he doesn't have a Recovery partition? You can hit Control F11 after the Dell BIOS splash screen to try and boot from it.

Grumpy

If he has'nt already tried to reinstall XP.
Do not let him.
SiS Soft sandra will give him the cd key and then he can do a repair re/inistall.
as long as it is his system (not many Changes) he can start over.
If it only has the original windows, thats OK.
We can tell him where to get sp2

What differentiates an OEM from a retail WindowsXP CD? Is there a file in the CD that designate it as either OEM or retail?

I did that and it would not accept any Product Key. I'm guessing it takes more than a simple edit.

Yes the Keys are good. They work in a non edited CD.

Better use dell so call em up. If not then you can use your cd (its not actually yours......MS never SELLS them.....read the EULA carefully)
but only if they are the same version (OEM usually IF IT IS DELL).

But better to have a dell cd for future, so..........