Re-installing Operating System

[Bob]

I have had a hard drive failure and have installed a new
drive. The original operating system was Windows ME
later upgraded to Windows XP. My question: Do I have to
install Windows ME first or can I install from the
Windows XP cd. I do have the 25 digit product keys from
both cd's.

 

[George Schloicka]

No. You should be able to install Xp without installing ME. It will ask you
for the ME disk at some point and all you have to do is put it in the cd
drive when it asks so that it finds it.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have had a hard drive failure and have installed a new
drive. The original operating system was Windows ME
later upgraded to Windows XP. My question: Do I have to
install Windows ME first or can I install from the
Windows XP cd. I do have the 25 digit product keys from
both cd's.

Provided the ME disk is a retail one and not some OEM 'restore' CD that
came with the machine:

Boot the XP CD and go into Setup to make the new installation (including
defining a partition to use and formatting it) This is the moment to
decide if you want to use the whole disk as one - I would keep the size
of the one for the system down to maybe 10 or at most 16 GB with a disk
that is likely to be much bigger.

When it asks where Windows is, show it the ME CD in the drive - then
when it blue screens to say 'put in a CD', put the XP one back.

If it was a restore type ME CD, you will have to restore that first;
then run the XP CD from it and either upgrade of change to New Install;
then when it asks where hit ESC and delete the partition to make a new
RAW one. By that time the eligibility check will have been made