IBM Product Recovery Failure

Well, I kinda screwed the pooch this time. Decided that my current Windows install was getting a bit (okay, a lot) bloated and slow, so I tried to reload the factory OS from the recovery CDs I had burned a while ago. Lo and behold, one of the disks must be scratched, because every one of the half dozen times I tried, it hung up and failed on a file called "2GHNT0A0.IMZ." I called tech support to see if I could get some new ones, and a turns out that a new set is going to cost me $50 (although I did finally get around to getting my keyboard and palmrest replaced - great service there), so I'm looking for other options to get things working again.

Right now I'm ever so slowly downloading a copy of Windows XP Pro OEM that I'll be able to use my license key with, but I'd really like to be able to get back the restore partition and all of that handy stuff, because I quite like it. My one idea right now is to beg in a public forum (hmm, like this one? yes!) for someone else with a T43 to track down that file I seem to be having problems with and substitute that on the recovery CD, but I'd be open to any suggestions that might work better!

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

It is unlikely the OEM Pro disc will work with your key. Perhaps you can make a copy of the bad disc onto an unscratched one. Desktop drives tend to read media better if you have one or access to one. I use scratch resistant discs for those types of discs. I have seen toothpaste work as well.

 

Oh, that's not good news. Why wouldn't my key work with an OEM disk, though? What good is that key, then?

I did try copying the disk that I think had the problem file using my desktop burner, but it didn't seem to work. I might try again, though.