darkes just a pointer for you... you can set the 'hidden' admin account on XP home to have a password, you can also change the login from 'Administrator' if you like ... type in 'control userpasswords2' at the run command... you'll get a nice GUI pop up which allows you to perform this task - if you haven't reset your 'hidden' admin password I would. You do then have to enter the password if you're using the recovery console but it's a little bit useless since you can get around this as Mark has discovered... but it's just another step for causing hassle to someone trying to get into your box.

Mark - glad to hear you managed to get in again - the reason your seeing this is because HP usually use a ghost partition of the system in a clean state... hence if the HD goes you are going to have to purchase a copy of XP on CD. It is a common practice in the UK (and not one I agree with) but it is legal... basically HP would have purchased a OEM license from MS installed it on your PC and set up a ghost partition for recovery (I think Time do a similar thing but with a 'recovery CD' rather than a seperate parition - could be wrong though) which also means that your copy of XP doesn't have to be activated because it has been activated already by HP.

As regards buying PC's - personally I always get them built for me from an independant supplier...


Z