I am trying to recover a windows XP installation which had been corrupted. History: after trying to install a new monitor and whatever changes were made in the process, XP would boot to a black screen. Attempting to boot safe mode, last known good configuration, VGA mode, etc., all did the same thing. The bootlog would show me the last driver which installed correctly, but no info as to what was loading that didn't succeed (what is the point of such a log if it doesn't register what is ABOUT to be attempted - sometimes I have to wonder what those morons at Micro#oft are being paid for ...) There was a system.sav file which predated the failure so I replace the system file with the system.sav and then the system booted to the "continue installation" screen but would not accept input from keyboard or mouse, so I rebooted with an XP Home retail disk to do a repair install. Of course, the XP key on the case is for the Home OEM version and the install doesn't recognize it as valid. How can I get this repair install to accept the OEM key having used the retail disk?