Jim Lad -

When I had to replace a hard drive recently, the "mirror image" drive that I'd made about three months earlier resulted in a "disabled Office" and a refusal by the Microsoft Update site to download even Critical Updates for WinXP. The Microsoft update site gave no explanation or suggestions.

A separate visit to the Office Update site got a request that I "validate" my Office copy, which was quickly done, and after that was accomplished everything worked again, including the Microsoft Update site.

If you visit the Office Update site and let them scan for updates, they may give you a chance to do a validation on the older Office - and possibly to do a clean validation on the newer one.

Installing another older Office from different disks quite likely will result in exactly the same problem you have with your present version, if it's due to an "authentication" difficulty (assuming of course that your present copy is "as legal" as the new one you might get).

I'd suggest you see what you can find at Office 2003 Solution Center before just trying another disk. There is a "validate an Office version" button there.

Microsoft Office 2007 Solution Center may also be helpful since you have both versions. (At the bottom there is a "find out about running Office 2007 on a computer that is running an earlier version.")

John