GreekGoddess:

Mine is the same way. Mine is a Gateway CD. If you were to try to put the restoration CD in another computer that isn't the brand that says on the CD, your computer will automatically reboot. Well, it will issue a warning that it can't be run because it doesn't match your computer or something of that sort.

I haven't found anyway around that, but I haven't tried very hard. I just go get the right CD.

Micron, Dell, Compaq, HP, etc. all do it. It has something to do with matching the CD to the bios I think. I'm not sure if it actually looks at the hardware in that case though. Good test.

I'll take an older gateway and see if XP will install on it even though it is different hardware.