Uninstall a pre-installed, non-active XP and revert to 2000 or WIN95

[George H]

The company from which I bought my computer had pre
installed XP on it as a way to test the system. I did not
buy the XP OS because I was going to install my own copy
of 2000. I cannot activate the XP. I cannot uninstall XP.
When I get into safe mode and try to do install 2000, a
message says that since it is an older OS than what is on
the computer, the installation features are inactive. I
tried this with my old Win 95 and I get a message saying
that Setup cannot be started in NT and that I need to get
out of NT and then start setup from MS-DOS. How do I get
out of NT?

 

[Jerry]

Use a DOS boot floppy to start the system and run FDISK to remove the
partitons. Reboot again with the floppy and run FDISK again to create new
partiotns, then format the drives.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

In order to install Windows 2000, you'll have to reformat your drive,
so you need to backup your important files since nothing will be retained.

The Windows 2000 CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows 2000 to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP 2000 in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows 2000.

5. After Windows 2000 is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates", starting with SP4.

6. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows 2000 compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

----------------------------------------------------------------------


| The company from which I bought my computer had pre
| installed XP on it as a way to test the system. I did not
| buy the XP OS because I was going to install my own copy
| of 2000. I cannot activate the XP. I cannot uninstall XP.
| When I get into safe mode and try to do install 2000, a
| message says that since it is an older OS than what is on
| the computer, the installation features are inactive. I
| tried this with my old Win 95 and I get a message saying
| that Setup cannot be started in NT and that I need to get
| out of NT and then start setup from MS-DOS. How do I get
| out of NT?

 

[George]

I tried this and it did not work. After inserting the Win
2000 CD, and rebooting, XP came up with the message asking
if i wanted to activate the software. I have a DVD +/- RW
drive, is it possible that I cannot boot from this drive?

 

[G.Beat]

I tried this and it did not work.

What did you try? Did you go into your computer (e.g. Dell, HP, Compaq) and
change the setup to have the first bootable device be the CD-ROM ?

Also, when you were there - did your computer recognize the CD-ROM?

After inserting the Win 2000 CD, and rebooting, XP came up with the
message asking
if i wanted to activate the software.

This tell us that your computer is still booting from the hard drive.
During boot-up did the computer acess (spin) the CD-ROM and/or floppy drive?

IF not, you have not changed your BIOS properly. Possibly you forgot to
save your changes when
exiting the BIOS?
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

I have a DVD +/- RW drive, is it possible that I cannot boot from this
drive?

Should not be an issue, IF the BIOS sees the drive correctly during boot-up

Is this a standard computer brand?

In any case, you need to wipe the partition and hard drive.
Parition Magic can do this as well as the FDISK utility from MS DPOS and the
setup routine on your bootable Windows 2000 CD.