Originally Posted by
Commando
Dude,
Relax, I've been there. As long as you have a valid key. You've got plenty of options, trust me.
First, like sgtm said the problem is most likely just a bad read from the CD. No need to panic I promise. Ok, deep breath, now take a little ride on the trust train, cause this sounds a little goofy but works 90% of the time. Just like a good paint job, the cd has a data layer covered by a clear plastic layer, just like a paint job covered by a clearcoat. So even if a cd gets scratched ,on the surface, the data is still fine. Hence your cd is probably just smudged, not even scratched. Try just cleaning it off with some glass cleaner or just water. If that doesn't work it's time to try something much more fun.
Have any CD polish handy? Check in your bathroom. Toothpaste works great for this. Use the toothpaste like a polish, which it is. I'm gonna spell this out a little cause I don't want to be responsible for you ruining your system with gobs of toothpaste.
Take the CD and wet it. A couple of drops of water is fine. It's plastic your not gonna hurt anything. Take a little bit of toothpaste, like 1/4 of what you normally put on your toothbrush. Put it on the CD, obviously the data side, the side with no writing. Then take an old cotton T-Shirt put two fingers in it and wet where your two fingers are.
Now use a a small circular motion (like the size of a quarter) with very light pressure and polish the surface of the CD. Make sure and keep wetting your fingers and the CD. It should feel like your fingers are gliding over the surface. The toothpaste is slowly polishing the surface. Go around the whole data side of the CD. After about 5 min of that. Wash the CD completely off with the faucet and make sure to get all the toothpaste off. Now dry it off with a dry portion of the same cotton T-shirt.
The cotton T-shirt is actually kinda important. 100% cotton is really soft and doesn't scratch stuff. So if you tried this with your polyester members only jacket you would definitely scratch your CD until it was ruined.
Bingo. This works for all your old CDs, old DVDs, PS2 games, you name it. This also works with shoe polish on that old grimy pair of boots. Hence the name spit shine because you can obviously substitute for the water.
The main reason I know this is gonna work is because your CD worked the first time, so it's obviously not too scratched up.
If this doesn't work, no big deal. You can just email the company whether it be Microsoft or whoever, and they will send you a new CD. It's the license Key that you really own. The CD is not that big of a deal.
Finally, yes, a total fresh install is the way to go. Delete all the partitions. Create a new one then install on the new partition. Then start using windows update to get all the updates. This will take a while. I know because I just did this on my machine.
Let us know if anything wonky comes up. This is an easy problem, don't stress.