You have been had. You were illegally sold either a Dell OS recovery cd or a
bootleg copy of.the Dell cd.
Call 1-800-RU-LEGIT and report the piracy to MS.

--
Larry Samuels Associate Expert
MS-MVP (2001-2005)
Unofficial FAQ for Windows Server 2003 at
http://pelos.us/SERVER.htm
Expert Zone- www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone.
"Bill" <Bill@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6A6DFB36-D3E3-43E2-9DCB-D57F562B64BF@microsoft.com...
>i recently purchased a OEM version of Windows XP from EDirectsoftware.com
>and
> I cannot get it to activate. the system I put it on recently had a hard
> drive
> meltdown and I put a new one in. I installed to software fine, but it will
> not activate. it is saying to contact Dell, but it is installed on a HP
> system. Any suggestions
>
> Bill in okinawa