Can't Format....

Hi,
So I put the XP Pro CD in my CDROM Drive -hit DEL on reboot and tell the BIOS to boot from CDROM -but it still boots to the current installed version of windows. -Even if I click on the CD Drive from within windows it just asks me to install Windows XP -it doesn't want to let me format first. -What am I doing wrong?
Appreciate any help you can provide,
-522.

 

On my system during boot I get a line that says something to this effect "press any key to boot from cd"

Watch your boot up process and see if you get this.

 

In BIOS, did you make sure the boot order is set to boot the CDROM drive FIRST ? If so, during boot sequence, the system should pause a few seconds and at the bottom of the screen it should say "Hit any key to boot from CD" or similar. If you don't hit a key, it will boot from the hard drive anyway.

 

I do get the message 'Press any key to boot from CD' -but regardless of if'n I press a key or not it boots to the previously loaded XP.
-Any other ideas?
-522.

 

Don't set the hd as a boot option and see what happens.

Otherwise you could use a boot floppy to break your partition or reformat and then it won't be able to boot from the hd.

 

I'm not setting an HDD as the primary boot: I'm setting the CDROM -but to no avail -it just boots into the currently installed version of XP. -Weird, eh?
-522.

 

Can you read CDs (try different ones) normally in that drive from within XP? If not the problem could be with the drive itself...

 

yeah: I play games of this drive all the time -I don't know why it won't work....very frustrating. Thanks for you reply.
-522.

 

he means try not choosing anything for the hard drive just uncheck it completely see what happens.

 

OK -Granted I have consumed mass amouts of Scotch since beginning this thread: but how do you mean "try not choosing anything for the HDD" -in my BIOS I should UNcheck everything? -(I didn't know I could do that) -I'll try it but I fear that I must be misinterpreting you as I don't think that I can "UNcheck" anything in the BIOS -I can only enable another option (I think) -I could be wrong though -I'll go try.
-522.

 

What I mean is in the bios where you can set the boot order ONLY set the cdrom, make the other options disabled or none.

 

just a long shot

can you boot to a floppy disk

maybe you could try getting an old 98 boot disk set the bios to boot from floppy
make sure you select with cd rom support then it will load and give you the drive letter of your cd drive probably E:
then at the prompt type Eor whatever is your cd drive) then enter
you should then get a prompt for that drive
type in setup and enter
then all being well it should then run the cd to install xp
and you can format the drive during the install process

some one please jump in if ive missed something

 

Still unablr to format via WinXP Disc

OK, I've tried all suggestions EXCEPT the floppy -I'm hoping I can do this without needing to dl a 98 boot disk. Any other ideas?
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions -I really appreciate it,
522.

 

Are you using a usb keyboard? If so you may need to enable usb in DOS for the keyboard to be recognized during boot. OR just borrow a reg keyboard

 

..Hadn't thought of that: I have regular keyboard here somewhere...I'll plug it in and give it a try. I thought I had done this before with this keyboard and only had to switch after a certain point -but I'm not sure.
Thanks,
522.
(edit: no need for a repeat of my pc details)

 

Try this

It might do the trick

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q310994