I have been given a IBM NetVista 8303 Model 61G desktop PC with original license (COA) for Microsoft XP Professional.
However, I must recover the OS to its original factory condition before it will be of any use.
Can someone advise me how I can legitimately recover the original factory settings for this machine? I have no setup disks and after surfing the Web and many attempts at pressing function keys during startup I am of the opinion there is no onboard system recovery option, though I may be wrong (I tried the IBM Website for assistance on this matter but found the whole experience laughingly hideous and a waste of time).
Can I buy any Windows XP Pro disk and install it using the original Product Code on the COA stuck on the side of the machine?
If so, must I format the drive first (how do I do that when there is no OS?).
Can I use any OEM/Retail XP Pro disk or must it be IBM?
Surely the recovery of this machine is possible somehow?

Hello Di4charles, welcome back to PCHF!

I have marked your thread as open and one of out techs will be along shortly to assist you

Thank you for your patience

Smokeycheech

Have you been here?

Lenovo Support & downloads - How to use the pre-boot service partition to recover your software

"To Start the Product Recovery program, press F11
This message will stay on the screen for approximately 2 seconds, and it will be there every time the machine is started from a powered off state. If the F11 key is pressed while the message is displayed, then the system will enter the Service partition."

Hi elpmek,
Unfortunately there is no sign of the Product Recovery program, with or without the F11 key pressed during startup. I have read the above link with great care but it does not appear to apply to this machine. I suspect I must treat the drive as one would a replacement, but I know not what to do.

In that case buy or borrow any XP Pro installation CD. Ensure the CD drive is the first boot device in the BIOS and away you go, this will do all the partitioning etc.

You will find it useful to download the drivers, video, audio, network etc from the link as noted previously onto a memory stick or CD so they are available after you've re-installed the XP Pro.

I'm utterly car-parked!
I purchased a brand new sealed legit retail copy of Windows XP Pro SP2 with COA, meanwhile removing the hard drive, formatting it as a slave on another PC and running a chkdsk for good measure before replacing it, and renewing the CMOS battery for good measure. Eventually I worked out how to get the CD to boot (IBM!?!) and I ran the setup CD.
Alas, once the files downloaded, the PC 'configured' and the screen went blank except for a flashing cursor in the top left corner.
Tried the setup twice and it does the same thing, all before the Microsoft setup window (as opposed to blue screen) appears and gets started.
Utterly car-parked.

Not sure why the title now says '830', its a NetVista 8303. Anyway, this time I let the Windows CD delete and replace the partition, and format it, and it worked! Thanks you, and thanks for the drives link.
Kind regards, Charles.