XP Home reinstall

[QfanatiQ]

Ok got a laod of Old PC's emachines 330. Went to put them back to original settings (bascially XP Home) i have managed to do one of the Five. one of them

Starts the laoding sequence
give options

I chose (as XP Pro was on thier) to delte partition (as i have done this beofre)

It has deleted the partition

Now will nto let me install, asks for new partition, i give it size (max i can) press return (thats what it asks for) but it then goes back to previous window?? saying no formatted partition. Cant get past this.

The other, installed, but then said my regkey did not match something ( i will endevour to get proper log). I am a little confused, as i have done a few of these in the past. All Windows Keys are on the back of the machines.

We do not have the original boot cd's anymore. I did find a place online selling them for £18, but i am not sure if one of the PC's are even worth this.

These were simply being thrown way, is it worth my while trying to fix th eones i am having trouble with or Chuck them? Just hoping to make a quick few pence and gain experience.

Cheers.....Q

[Jammyd]

I will try and give an answer based on my own limited experience, and maybe it will help or at least some more knowledgeable people will correct any mistakes i make. Firstly you say you haven't got the original boot discs but i assume you do have a copy of a windows xp home disc. It sounds to me like ur trying to run the windows disc after the current operating system has booted. It sounds to me like the operating system was installed on just one partition of the whole HD. If you try deleting this partition it normally says that you can't delete this partition because the operating system you have installed is using it, and only gives you the option of installing XP again, which will then lead to warnings about installing 2 OS on the same partition. UR best bet is to format the whole HD and reinstall from scratch. You must make sure that you boot the Windows Disc from startup. Make sure that ur CD-Rom is set as the as 1st priority boot option in BIOS start-up menu, normally you have to press the "Del" "F2" or "F12" keys to enter the BIOS after you start the computer and before the OS starts to load (it will tell you on the screen), and go to boot option and make sure the CD is the 1st device priority. Exit saving changes, put ur XP boot disc in the cd rom and restart. It should give you the option to press a key to boot from cd. From here you can delete all the partitions and do a full format and install. If you have the original XP keys you should be ok, but you might have to phone M$ up to activate . Just pm me if you have any problems with the activation or boot disc problems. Hope this helps

[QfanatiQ]

Yes to all that.

I got as far as deleting the partition. Now there is no operating system on it. It will not let me format the HD as part of the installation.

I think i might just offer this as is. I am sure someone will be able to make something of it, even if for 1p

Cheers for the reply

.....Q