Want to wipe system clean, Install Win XP

Hi, I've had a number of problems that I have just made worse trying to fix. I'm hoping I can just wipe my system clean and start over. Currently, I have Win 2000 installed on a Compaq 866 pentium III. I bought it with that operating system and I don't own the disk. I do own Win 98 SE and I just bought Win XP Home Edition ( includes service pack 2 ) off of Ebay.It sayes to be sold only with new pc. However, it's never been used and still has it's # intact but comes with only a pamplet for instructions. Anyway, I read some where that win 2000 couldn't be the current operating system if you were installing win xp. But doesn't that apply only if your upgrading?? Wouldn't the Win XP I bought be more than just an upgrade if it were meant to go on a completely new system?? I know very little about computers so maybe I just don't even know what an upgrade is. So far I have been pretty lucky finding answers when I've had problems until now. I've messed around so much with it I'm afraid to do another thing until someone who really knows can tell me what to do. Oh! Also I have a DVD/CDRW on the computer I'm trying to fix.(samsung) Just thought maybe I should mention it. Well, I think I'll end this for now. I didn't mean for this to be so long. I would greatly appreciate any advice you can give me. Thank you, Cammie

Hi , welcome to the forum and thanks for becoming a member.

I will just quickly clear up a few things in your post before the install part.

1) Your copy of XP Home sounds like a OEM version, basically it was only meant to be sold by resellers with new computers, but its no different from a retail version really (just no pretty box or manuals etc). It will work just fine, as long as it has the "license key" sticker then your fine.

2)You can upgrade from windows 2000 to XP if you wanted to, but in your case you are wanting to do a clean install , so thats not something we need to worry about, you can upgrade or do a clean install with the copy you have.

3)Doing a clean install with XP is very simple, first make sure you have backed up anything you would like to keep first as a clean install will wipe it all.

When you are ready to install xp do the following
Configuring the BIOS
It is necessary to boot off your XP CD. Most computers boot straight from the hard drive but some do not.
Switch on your computer and enter the BIOS/Setup by pressing DEL or F2 or F1 (it usually says on the screen).

(Change the boot order to boot from the CD first (how to do this is dependent on your BIOS) normally under "boot options" or "startup sequence", depends on the PC

Insert Windows XP CD. Save changes and restart computer.
If prompted to press any key to boot from CD. then do so
Once you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press enter.

Press F8 to agree with the licensing agreement.

XP should then find your current hard drive size and partition information, you will have a option to delete partions and bottom of the screen, do this

You should now have your hard drive size reported and no partition.

press enter and xp should ask to you choose a partition size, select the default settings, you should then be asked to format (quick or normal), either should be ok, if you have time do normal, it will take longer though
after formatting XP will install , follow the on screen instructions, choose your Regional and Language Options.

Once installation is complete, I advise you to visit Windows Update and download all critical updates.


4)Finally as you see from above having a working cd/dvd rom is vital, so if yours isnt working we will need to fix that first.

thants basically it, give it a try, if you have any more questions first then let me know.

thanks

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Hi Tech Master,

Thank you so much for responding so quickly to my email. I was encouraged by everything you said. I do want to tell you acouple more things. My Cd Rom is really what started my trouble. I decided to get the Win XP because I had a couple of things I needed to fix on my computer but because I didn't have the win 2000 disk I couldn't do it. I knew that would probably happen eventually. Anyway, I had heard Win XP was great etc. so I bought it. By the way, the certificate of authenticity or the label that's suppose to be there definitely is. That was the only reason I bought this particular one. (and the fact that it was only $80 bucks). Well, all the sudden my Cd Rom decides it doesn't want to work. Now I know that it darn well does work but for some reason some thing disables it. The DVD part works great. I'm thinking I'm doing something to make this happen because another Compaq I have (I'm on it now) use to do the very same thing. I pour over site after site looking for info on this problem and the only thing I really find out for sure is that a ton of other folks are having the same problem and there are alot of different solutions given but I didn't find any to be the answer. On this computer, I would go into the device manager and disable the master IDE and then enable it and most of the time my Cd Rom would be back. When I tried sort-of the same thing on win 2000 I get the blue death screen from hell and I don't care if I had set a bomb on it, I couldn't get that blue screen to go away! Now my Win XP will be here any day and I'm freaking out so I go in bios and set that to start from a cd rom first. I put in Win 89 and do a parallel install just in case Win XP needs Win 89 to up grade. ( I read this some where) Well, that didn't go so well but the Cd Rom worked again. Anyway, I don't know what the deal is with the Cd Rom problem. I'm sure it will happen again. I just want to wipe everything off and I really think the Cd Rom will be there. What do you think? I must sound so silly because I really have no idea what I'm doing but I try hard. Thank you again for your time and I hope I made some kind of sense. Cammie

Hi,

No you dont sound silly at all, so i assuming at the moment your cd rom is working, and from what your saying the cd rom issue seems to be common with that model of compaq so im suprised compaq havent released a fix, anyway we can come back to that one later.

The first thing is to get XP on your PC, you dont need to worry about having Win 98, so forgot that becuase we are going to wipe your hard drive and install XP,all you need is the XP cd.

Just boot off you XP CD when you get it, and following the instructions in my previous post, let me know how you get on, once XP is up and running we can have a look at that CD rom problem.

thanks

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Hi Cammie.
If I could put my 2-cents in here: TechMaster is absolutely correct - you will not need an existing operating system on your machine to "upgrade". The CD you bought is a full-version stand-alone install and you would do best with a clean install and a normal format with NTFS.

One thing I will suggest though: If you can, you might want to back up your drivers. It's possible XP may not have *all* the drivers your machine needs. I have used a free program called Driver Magician Lite. You can get it from C-Net. Once you run it, it identifies all the drivers on your machine and shows you which ones are not included in your "current" operating system. It then gives you the option to back them up. You could back them up to your hard drive, then copy to a CD, DVD, USB stick drive or any other removable media with enough capacity. Only back up the ones that are not part of your operating system.

Now, I realize you are going from W2k to XP, and the exact drivers you back up may not be the correct ones for XP, BUT, at least it will identify for you which ones you [perhaps] should be concerned about ahead of time. You can then download the XP drivers in anticipation of any problems, and it may just save you some headaches.

Download here:
http://www.download.com/Driver-Magic...html?tag=lst-1