Windows xp rebooting problems

[Guest]

I have a legal copy of XP on my computer, and it was working fine. It was
registered through the windows site. One day my windows wouldn't load. The
computer acted like windows was never on it at all. I could here the hard
drive clicking trying to run it, but it doesn't work. So, I replaced the hard
drive, and put my bought, LEGAL copy of windows in the puter to load it. The
downloading is going smoothly until I get to the part where windows asks me
to put a legal copy of one of the following products in the reader to verify
if my computer can handle the XP edition. So, the windows cd is already in
the reader, and I just hit 'enter' letting it know that the copy is in there.
After a short wait, windows says it can't read my copy of windows, or my copy
is a fake - which i KNOW it isn't. Can anyone help me?

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a legal copy of XP on my computer, and it was working fine. It was
registered through the windows site. One day my windows wouldn't load. The
computer acted like windows was never on it at all. I could here the hard
drive clicking trying to run it, but it doesn't work. So, I replaced the hard
drive, and put my bought, LEGAL copy of windows in the puter to load it.

So this is a clean install to a new hard disk? Is the Windows install CD
an Upgrade version?

The
downloading

Do you mean the installation?

is going smoothly until I get to the part where windows asks me
to put a legal copy of one of the following products in the reader to verify
if my computer can handle the XP edition.

It wants to check for that you are upgrading from a qualifying product ?
It will do this if it's an upgrade version, installing to a new, bare drive.

So, the windows cd is already in
the reader, and I just hit 'enter' letting it know that the copy is in

there.

If it's actually an upgrade CD, you need to put in a previous qualifying
Windows CD, like an ME CD. You can't use the CD you're installing from as
the upgrade qualifier.

After a short wait, windows says it can't read my copy of windows, or my copy
is a fake - which i KNOW it isn't. Can anyone help me?

If the CD isn't an upgrade version, could you provide more details?

HTH
-pk

 

[Drew Tognola]

Aztec,

As Patrick mentions, it sounds like you are attempting a clean install with
a Windows XP upgrade disk, which can't be done. You need to insert the CD
that was hopefully issued when your computer was bought. This may be an
earlier version of Windows, such as Windows 98 or Windows Millennium.
If this is the case, you will need to install one of those OS's and then
insert and install the Windows XP upgrade CD.

Drew

 

[Guest]

Wrong you don't need to actually install one of the older OS, just have the
authentic cd and when it asks for the media take out the upgrade cd and
insert the old os cd , it must be one of the ones listed on the cd as
authorized for upgrade from, else it won't work. try the install again and
have the old OS cd handy.

 

[Roberto]

Aztec,

As Patrick mentions, it sounds like you are attempting a clean install
with a Windows XP upgrade disk, which can't be done. You need to insert
the CD that was hopefully issued when your computer was bought. This may
be an earlier version of Windows, such as Windows 98 or Windows
Millennium.
If this is the case, you will need to install one of those OS's and then
insert and install the Windows XP upgrade CD.

Drew

Actually that's not quite correct, FYI you can use the upgrade CD to do
a bare metal install, just change CDs when asked during the install [you
will need a full version of Win98 /ME as proof].
I've done this many times as the upgrade path isn't always the best way IMO,
any underlying problems are just imported.

rgds
Roberto