Reinstalling XP, but disk only works from within Windows?

Hi

I have a Dell 8400 and want to reinstall XP and format the HDD at the same time. Everything backed up, drivers downloaded and ready to go.

My problems is that when I tried reinstalling before, the CD is not recognised from boot although the BIOS checks it before the HDD.

The reinstallation CD works happily enough from within Windows however.

I have 2 partitions on my 250GB HDD and I want to go back to a single one, however as it starts in Windows, it refuses to delete the partition. It also didn't remove the first XP installation so now I have 2 installations in a partition that's getting too tight on space now.

If I can only get this disk to work from within XP, can I remove one of the installations? I need to do another reinstallation (due to chipset driver error - my fault) and I don't want 3 installations...

I have a floppy drive (if anybody sells the disks anymore) if that's a good way to go,

Thanks

 

Is this an original Microsoft CD or something you burned? Perhaps the CD wasn't burned with a boot sector.

What do you mean by having 2 installations on one partition? Did you rename the windows directory when installing it a second time?

 

have you tried using a usb stick to install windows?

 

So, did you change the boot order in BIOS first to boot from CD? That's the only important thing here. Once you have that then press 'any' key once you see the prompt on the screen. If all that's done and you can't get it to boot then it's hardware issues.