Installation question, Windows xp Home Edition, version 2002

[Guest]

I want a clean installation. I've backed up all the files I want to save to
removeable storage. I've made my CD drive the first boot sequence in the
BIOS. After the installation begins, I get the following error message: Setup
could not read the CD you inserted, or the CD is not a valid windows CD. I
bought this at Circuit City, $99. Is there some difference in versions that
will only allow an upgrade and not a clean install??

 

[T. Waters]

Based on the price you paid, you may have an upgrade version.
Upgrade XP disks usually ask for a previous version of Windows, though. Did
you see a request at some point to insert a disk for a previous version of
Windows?
PS: You CAN do a clean install with an upgrade disk, but first you have to
"show" XP Upgrade Version a qualifying previous version of Windows.

 

[Guest]

No, there was no prompt to verify my existing version.

 

[Alias]

It should say whether it's an update or not. Maybe you could look at it and
tell us?

Alias

 

[Guest]

The box does say UPGRADE. So does that mean you can't do a clean install?

 

[kurttrail]

The box does say UPGRADE. So does that mean you can't do a clean
install?

No. Sounds like your CD is scratched.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/getstarted/troubleshoot.mspx

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"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[Haggis]

The box does say UPGRADE. So does that mean you can't do a clean install?

as stated ...you can do a clean install , but you must "show" it a
qualifying product (full win98 or such)

as for the cdrom not booting ....boot to a floppy disk ...can you access
said CD and look at what it contains?
if you can't , either the CD or the cdrom is not working properly

 

[Ken Blake]

In

The box does say UPGRADE. So does that mean you can't do a
clean
install?

No, it doesn't mean that. The requirement to use an upgrade
version is to *own* a previous qualifying version's installation
CD, not to have it installed. When setup doesn't find a previous
qualifying version installed, it will prompt you to insert its CD
as proof of ownership. You just insert the previous version's CD,
and follow the prompts. Everything proceeds quite normally and
quite legitimately.

But your situation is different. You say you're getting the
message "Setup could not read the CD you inserted, or the CD is
not a valid windows CD." That has nothing to do with a clean
installation vs. an upgrade. It would seem that your CD is
defective or damaged.

 

[Guest]

It's reading the CD up to that point. In fact, it looks as though the
"Upgrade" option is installing fine. I just wanted a clean install vs the
upgrade. This machine has had it's share of malware & spyware, wearware,
you-name-it-ware that I wanted to erase these problems in the upgrade.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

It's reading the CD up to that point. In fact, it looks as
though the
"Upgrade" option is installing fine. I just wanted a clean
install vs
the upgrade. This machine has had it's share of malware &
spyware,
wearware, you-name-it-ware that I wanted to erase these
problems in
the upgrade.

Just a thought: is it possible that it prompted you for the
previous version's CD as proof of ownership (as I said below) and
you accidentally just pressed enter too quickly without reading
the message? It would then be trying to use your XP CD as proof
of ownership and rejecting it.

Try it again, and see if the same thing happens.

 

[T. Waters]

And furthermore, you never specifically said that you have the media for a
previous version of Windows.
This is a must, and if you do not have such a disk, go buy a used copy
cheaply (even Win 95 will do for a clean install), or borrow one
..