At 09:58 AM 2/27/02 -0800, Martin Baker wrote: >We just bought a little cheap PC for the Lab, and it came with XP. I need >to blow XP off the drive and install W2K, for which we bought a shrink >wrapped copy. I cannot get the system to wipe XP. The one time I want to >format the drive, it won't let me. Icannot run setup from the CD, and when >Ireset the Bios to boot from the CD or floppy, it still boots into XP. I've read many of the other replies but think that the best way to deal with the problem is to install your new OS onto a DIFFERENT hard drive. Wiping the existing hard drive is short-sighted for a couple of reasons: drivers and warranty / tech support. Either stick a used hard drive in the box (most of us on the list have at least 1 hard drive kicking around just for situations like this) or bite the bullet and purchase a new drive for the box. Install the new OS on the new drive. If the new install won't finish because of driver problems, re-install the original drive and see what you can find out. Once you have the new OS working - you have a few choices. Just tuck the original drive into the box (for future reference), maybe take an image of it (Ghost or Drive Image) or wipe it and keep it as your new floater drive. I like the first option - it sure makes dealing with tech support easier if you do wind up having hardware problems. If you don't care about that - by all means wipe the drive. dwayne Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax Celebrating 18 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2002) .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .- `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address. This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics