Hard Drive Repalcement in Windows XP Home

Hi,
About a year ago I purchased a sony laptop with windows XP
home installed. The hard drive has now gone down and I
have tried to replace it. The XP recovery discs will not
write to the disk because the disk id is different to the
original.

Also any idea which of the numbers off the hologram is
used as a product id for microsofts help line? I tried all
the numbers on it and none of them seemed to be the
correct one (unless Sony has started ripping Microsoft off
the hologram is genuine). They suggest a number which you
can find when the os is running - not much when its not!
Thanks for any help you can give
Gary

This taken from Help and Support with a search of product id:
During software installation, the setup wizard prompts you to enter a
product key usually located on the back of the Windows CD-ROM folder. The
product key is a 25 character alphanumeric code shown in five groups of five
characters each (for example, BCDFG-12345-HJKLM-67890-NPQRS). Keep the
product key in a safe location and do not share it with others. This product
key forms the basis for your ability to install and use Windows.

The product key also forms the basis for the Product ID that is created when
Windows XP is installed. Each licensed instance of Windows XP has a unique
Product ID. The Product ID has 20 characters arranged like this:
12345-123-1234567-12345. It is listed in the properties for My Computer.

So without the machine running there is no way of knowing what your Product
ID is. As your copy of XP is probably an OEM version Microsoft will offer
no help to you anyways. I would think that Sony should be able to provide
help in restoring your laptop.

"Gary" wrote in message
...
Hi,
About a year ago I purchased a sony laptop with windows XP
home installed. The hard drive has now gone down and I
have tried to replace it. The XP recovery discs will not
write to the disk because the disk id is different to the
original.

Also any idea which of the numbers off the hologram is
used as a product id for microsofts help line? I tried all
the numbers on it and none of them seemed to be the
correct one (unless Sony has started ripping Microsoft off
the hologram is genuine). They suggest a number which you
can find when the os is running - not much when its not!
Thanks for any help you can give
Gary