Stuck in WinXP Setup loop!

So I tried loading XP Pro onto my computer and when I got to the product key entry, I realized I didn't have a key for it, my key is for Home Edition. So I stuck in the Home Edition Disc and there is no option to boot from disc, it just loads right into the setup screen, and tells me I have the wrong disc in. I no longer have the XP Pro disc. All I want is to format the drive now, I just want to start from scratch. Considering I can't get a boot from disc it's not proving very easy. I tried putting the drive as the slave in this computer to manually format it, but I can't seem to get this computer to read it. Any Ideas?

 

First off, let me thank you for the reply. Now, did you mean I should go into the boot order and set my CD Drive as the first to Boot? If so: I did try that, and still I had no Boot from Disc option, it just jumped right into Windows Setup.

 

Ok, so it's no longer allowing me to get into hardware options. An error screen comes up that lists:

No Drive Attached to FastTrack Controller

BIOS is not installed

WinXp Loading Screen then comes up, A blue screen says that setup is being restarted, and it goes back in, telling me I have the wrong disc.

 

Okay, you said you can't boot into bios?


Perhaps if you were to remove the battery on your motherboard for about a min (or 5 mins), then put it back in. Be careful, don't want to break anything. This will reset bios to defaults.

Oh, and turn off the computer first, btw.

Now turn the computer back on, you should now be able to go into your bios.

Another trick I use, way back in the day, is to remove the hdd from the boot options, this forces the computer to boot on the CD. Yes, you'll have to change it back to the hdd, once you complete the initial install of xp.

Hope some of this will help you!

 

Resetting the bios did work... But, yet again, setting the CD drive to boot first didn't give me a boot from CD option. How do you remove the hard drive from the boot list? I tried just disabling it and just received a drive fails error. :confused