Windows XP Professional Password Problem

Can someone please give me some advice?

My neighbor recently acquired a hard drive that was thrown away and wanted to add it to his machine for more storage capacity. Apparently, this was a hard drive used in an office and was loaded with Windows XP Pro. All I want to do is format the drive and reinstall the OS.

I took the HD and installed it in one of my machines and formatted the drive. However, when I put it back in my neighbor's computer and boot it up, I am still getting the Windows XP Pro log on screen (where you have to hit control+alt+delete and then entered a password).

Any tips?

Thanks!

db

 

Hmm, how about bringing the drive back to factory condition using the maker's utility. That has to wipe everything off!

 

The fact that the drive booted to a login screen at all is amazing. 95% of the time when XP is installed on a hard drive on one PC, and you move the hard drive to a different PC with different hardware, Windows crashes. If you just want to install Windows to the drive, jumper it as a master, hook it up as the master (or as the only drive), boot to the XP install disc, and select "fresh install" and format the drive that way. Alternatively, augie's suggestion about using the drive manufacturer's wiping utility is good, or you can use a bootable wiping program like Darik's Boot-n-Nuke, or the Ultimate Boot CD which has tons of useful utilities, including tools from all the main drive makers, diagnostics, partition tools, memory diagnostic tools, you name it... a GREAT boot disc!
Darik's Boot and Nuke http://www.majorgeeks.com/Dariks_Boot_and_Nuke_d4596.html
Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) http://majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Boot_CD_Basic_d4019.html
Both are available are ISO disc images and must be burned as such... if you try to burn an ISO as you would normally burn a data CD, it won't work. Most burning software has an option to create a CD from an image or to burn disc from ISO or whatever; they all word it a bit differently, but it's basically the same...

Good luck! And Welcome to Major Geeks! :wave :major