HD Replaced. Need Office 2003 Trial to Upgrade to 2003 Small Biz E

[Tony Plutino]

My hard drive crashed. I installed a new HD, reloaded XP from the OS disk
that Compaq provided, and then loaded the applications from the Application
and Driver Recovery disk that Compaq provided. Unfortunately MS Office 2003
Trial was not on the Application CD. I need it in order to reinstall the MS
Office Small Business 2003 Edition (that I bought and have CDs and license
key for). CompUSA where I bought the computer offers no help other than
buying Office 2007. Compaq suggested a download of some software called
"One" that they claimed could be used as the base for installing my MS Office
2003. After that didn't work they suggested downloading the MS Office 2007
Trial. I am going to try it, but expect that it won't work to use a 2007
Trial to install a 2003 version. I might upgrade to Office 2007 in the
future, but don't want to be forced into it now. Any suggestions out there?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

No trial version of Office can be used to upgrade to a full retail version. You probably had a version of Works or an earlier Office version from an older computer that you used for upgrading. Suggest you look for that CD and use it for the upgrade eligibility check.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Tony Plutino asked:

| My hard drive crashed. I installed a new HD, reloaded XP from the OS
| disk that Compaq provided, and then loaded the applications from the
| Application and Driver Recovery disk that Compaq provided.
| Unfortunately MS Office 2003 Trial was not on the Application CD. I
| need it in order to reinstall the MS Office Small Business 2003
| Edition (that I bought and have CDs and license key for). CompUSA
| where I bought the computer offers no help other than buying Office
| 2007. Compaq suggested a download of some software called "One" that
| they claimed could be used as the base for installing my MS Office
| 2003. After that didn't work they suggested downloading the MS
| Office 2007 Trial. I am going to try it, but expect that it won't
| work to use a 2007 Trial to install a 2003 version. I might upgrade
| to Office 2007 in the future, but don't want to be forced into it
| now. Any suggestions out there?

 

[Tony Plutino]

Hello Milly. Thanks for your quick response. It has been over two years
since I performed the upgrade from whatever came with the computer to the
Office Small Biz Ed. 2003. I just ran the Office Biz 2003 install CD again
and the prompt asks for a 97, 2000, or XP version of Office. When I upgraded
to Office Biz 2003 I did have to enter my license key. Everything worked
fine, which would indicate that I had the proper upgrade pre-requisite. I am
assuming that my upgrade info. resides on MS' systems somewhere. As MVP do
you have access to that? Assuming that it was MS Works, how do I get a copy
of that? The only disks I have are the two I described (OS and Apps).
Nothing else was included that I am aware of, but I will re-look at my
collection of compueter stuff and see if I have overlooked anything.

 

[Gordon]

Hello Milly. Thanks for your quick response. It has been over two years
since I performed the upgrade from whatever came with the computer to the
Office Small Biz Ed. 2003. I just ran the Office Biz 2003 install CD
again
and the prompt asks for a 97, 2000, or XP version of Office. When I
upgraded
to Office Biz 2003 I did have to enter my license key. Everything worked
fine, which would indicate that I had the proper upgrade pre-requisite. I
am
assuming that my upgrade info. resides on MS' systems somewhere. As MVP
do
you have access to that? Assuming that it was MS Works, how do I get a
copy
of that? The only disks I have are the two I described (OS and Apps).
Nothing else was included that I am aware of, but I will re-look at my
collection of compueter stuff and see if I have overlooked anything.

You can buy Office 97 very cheaply....
http://computers.search.ebay.co.uk/Office-97_Computing_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8QQsacatZ58058

 

[Tony Plutino]

Thanks for the responses and tips. I also contacted MS directly and was able
to obtain a "By-Pass" key that didnt't need a previous version to load over.