Installation probs

[Dean]

I'm trying to install xp pro oon my laptop from cd, there
is no floppy drive, and the cd wont boot from my pc
however others will. there is no operating system on the
harddrive. Any help would be great!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

If others will but the XP CD will not boot, do you have an actual XP CD or
is this a copy or perhaps a computer recovery CD from a manufacturer?

When the system boots with the CD in the drive, do you see a message a few
screens in to the process telling you to press any key if you wish to boot
from the CD?

 

[Dean]

It is an authentic cd, i tried a friends cd from dell and
it says something about emulation booting, then does
nothing. It was running fine and then i rebooted once
and it blue screened syaing there was a hardware change!
So i treid rebooting etc but to no avail so i formatted
the hd and now im stuck!!!

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

First, the Dell CD is probably BIOS locked to his system.

Second, after it says emulation there should be a message to press any key
if you wish to boot from the CD but this presupposes the CD isn't locked to
another system and no, you cannot unlock it. This was done to prevent it
from being installed on more than one computer at a time. Many of the OEM
systems don't even have to be activated because they are BIOS locked.