Help installing XP pro?

Question

Alright, I have a problem. I tried to install windows XP pro from windows home edition. The program deleted my home edition and moved to install the program. I went through picked a folder to load it up with (maybe I choosed the wrong one?). And its not letting me load up.

Heres what I do (after I restart it).

Choose Windows XP Pro. Press enter to start XP Pro setup. I insert the disk it tells me to when I am asked (Windows XP pack 2). Put it into my dvd drive (I DO NOT have a CD drive). I press L to use \WINDOWS (it gives me the option to press esc. and write in a different folder/ maybe I should use another one). I press L... and it says it can't verify drive C:. It also says there may not be enough memory. Then I press enter and it tries to delete the previous form of windows. When it is done it says that it was unable to find the windows CD (maybe because I have it in the DVD drive and not the CD/ being that I don't have one.) My only choice is to retry or quit. Advice?

I am still having trouble, I do not understand how to just boot the CD. I set it into my DVD drive and I let it load up, but the same screens and same results continue. There is no desktop to work with, as I can't get the OS installed.

Answer 1

First, be sure your computer has enough memory for XP pro. 256 should be considered the minimum 512 is better..

I will take some assumptions here. One you are fully prepaired to erase the hard drive and start over?

If so set your computer bios to boot from the DVD - it will read CDs just fine so ignore all the CD stuff it just means the installation cd whatever drive you put it into. (Usually you set the bios by pressing F1, F2, Delete etc as soon as the machine turns on.)

Boot the DVD and format the harddrive then continue with the installation. It should go smoothly.
I have seen many installations fail because XP was installed as an upgrade and the drive was not reformatted to NTFS.

Answer 2

Do yourself a favor and boot from the cd. If you need to config the bios to boot from cd drive as 1st option and just run the setup that way....you've already got the original installation pretty well corrupted.

If you have any important files on your drive that you don't want to lose either burn them to disc first or move them to another drive....an external usb drive perhaps. If that's not an option....you could create a small partition and move them there for protection ahead of time. (this is for data files...not installed programs)

ps...your dvd drive will read cds just fine