Reinstalling XP - problems

Basically I'm trying to reload xp on a new (used) drive but i'm having problems. I finally got xp to load, and installed the drivers, however when it boots up the screen goes blank. if i boot up in safe mode, i have a screen to work with, but i can't change any settings (in properties), because there is nothing to change it to. what i want is to reinstall xp again, however it boots up normally (won't boot from cd), and i have my bios setting to boot from cd 1st. any ideas? - sos

 

you could try downloading the utility from microsoft for the 6 setup boot floppies - painful but works well.

 

thx, but would you happen to know where it's at on there? if not, i'll go a searchin'!! - sosaman

 

search microsoft.com for setup floppies, sorry i had the link and lost it

 

If you have a win95/98 bootdisk, you can use it to boot to an a prompt and install just like you did with win98, etc..

 

if ur reinstalling XP on a drive its already.. just write over it well basically itll delete the old one an make room for the new one then when it gets to the screen and it says UPGRADE and it has a tab click it and put in the new istall or whatever it is and install it. itll work fine cause u can only use ur cd so many times and if u do that itll act as the first time w/ the cd key..

 

ok thx, is this what you were talking about?

Windows XP Home Edition Utility: Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...68-6e4f-471c-b455-bd5afee126d8&displaylang=en

 

some of the problems i was having with the install were:

it told me there was another version of windows on there already (it had windows 98 or 98 se), and it might cause problems, etc. i noticed when i loaded xp (it was bare), hardly anything there. however it had msn messenger on there (by the clock). so, i am wondering if it was mixing stuff up? i have tried to format it in dos mode, but it didn't work. i'm not sure if i'm typing the correct command?

boot from a boot disk and type format C: But thats not nessacry the windows xp install should give the option to format the drive <-- what i was told on hardware board.

 

yes that is the correct utility, create the discs, shove the first one in the floppy drive, restart your computer and it'll ask for each one in turn and then ask for your xp cd, its simple nothing can go wrong, unless theres something wrong with one of the floppies. it will help if you can have 2 computers - the one you're installing on, and another with the floppy setup utility incase anything goes wrong.