Reformatting XP

[lotekimpact]

Ok not sure where to start I am trying to clear my hard drive and get a fresh copy of xp on my computer. I try to boot from cd but the computer won't find my cd rom but when I am in windows it works just fine. so I can't get to the point of reformatting my hard drive becuase I can't boot from the cd rom can you help me?

thank you

 

[mailpup]

Go into the BIOS and make sure the CD drive is set as a boot device ahead of the hard drive.

 

[tifc8lraz]

BIOS is usually entered by tapping either delete, F1, F2, F3, and sometimetimes F4. Usually upon startup the black screen before the Windows Xp screen says setup -- . Hit the corresponding key and you should be entered. By the way, Welcome to Techspot :wave: !

 

[lotekimpact]

me agian

I set the computer to boot from the cd rom and when it goes through to try and boot from it, it says its not found and then moves on to the next things to boot from. then I set all 3 to cd rom to see if it work that time and then it said it wasn't found and then asked if I wanted to enter windows through safe mode , safe mode promped, restore from the last configuration when computer was working properly, or enter windows normally. so I am not sure if I am doing something wrong or if my computer is screwed up. hope you can help me figure this out. thank you

 

[Tmagic650]

You have to be able to "see" the CDROM in the bios. If you can't there is something wrong. As the computer boots you should see the hard drive and the CDROM in a list. If all you see is the computer logo, you may have to disable "fast boot" in the bios. You say the CD worked in Windows, but it doesn't any longer?

You can try and boot from a floppy. Go to http://www.bootdisk.com and create a Windows 98 boot disk. You will boot from this floppy, select boot with CDROM support and you can FDISK and Format the hard drive from it. Place the XP CD in the CDROM. Select the CD Drive letter at the A prompt and type CD i386. At the i386 directory type winnt and follow the on-screen instructions

 

[lotekimpact]

hello

well I not sure if I wll figure me darn computer out. the computer sees the cdrom in windows and sees it when it boots but when you try and boot from it, it says its not found. not sure what cuases that. I dont have a 98 floppy disk to boot form I onlt have the 98 cd which agian can't really help me if my cdrom wont boot. so I guess I neeed to figure out where I go from here. I know it is suppoes to say press anykey to boot form the cd rom my computer doesn't do that. am Imissing a drive or something. is that whymy computer not fuctioning properly. well I wish I had one on one help. I thought there was a way to format through dos. but don't remember that. well hope someone can help me. if not thank you for trying.

 

[Tmagic650]

If you have a floppy drive in your system, go to bootdisk.com and make a Windows 98 boot disk. This disk will boot your XP computer into DOS. FDISK and FORMAT are DOS (Disk Operating System) commands. This disk will also enable "booting with CDROM support". I can't make this any clearer. I'm sorry if you don't understand.

If you don't have a floppy drive, you'll need to get one installed, or you will have to take your system to a repair shop or to a friend that understands your situation

 

[lotekimpact]

hello

Hi I finally figured out my booting problem, but now my question is. I buy a key and an ID but when I install it all its asks for is the product key, and when I put it in its says the key doesn't match up with the product ID. how do I change the product ID for them to match. So I can have a valide windows?