Can you use alternate recovery cds on a different computer if they are the same brand

My older HP computer crashed & I lost everything, I never got around to making the recovery cds to reinstall all the software that came with the computer so that computer is useless at the moment. Since all my original software is gone could I still use an alternate set of recovery cds made from a different model HP computer to reinstall software on my old computer as long as they used the same version of windows & were the same brand computer?

 

Thanks, I will try it once my niece gets around to making the recovery CDs. Her computer is very similar to my old one except her's had a cdrw/dvd rom drive & I only had a cdrw drive on mine but the files on each were pretty much the same so maybe it will work.

I tried using my Windows 98 recovery cds on it but that didn't work even though it would have had plenty of hard drive space on my Windows XP computer. If it had of worked it would have been cheaper than paying a computer technician X amount of $ just to reload Windows XP back on it. I just recently got a new computer with Windows Vista but all my old hardware (printer/scanner) combo & software isn't compatible with Windows Vista so I will have to upgrade everything now.