Uninstalling Win2K Pro w/o installation disc

[Guest]

The organization I work for acquired a number of computers from another
organization w/Win2K Pro already installed. Unfortunately, no Win2K intall
disc was included. I am now attempting to install Win XP Pro on these
computers using Dell install discs (all computers involved are Dells), but
the install discs won't install over an existing Win2K installation and
doesn't include functionality to delete the existing Win2K installation.

Does anybody have a solution to allow me to uninstall the Win2K OSs, or
simply format the hard drives, so I can install XP Pro?

 

[David B.]

The Dell XP "recovery" cd does in fact allow you to delete, create, and
format partitions, it is essentially the same as an actual Microsoft OEM
disk, with the added feature of the Dell BIOS lock (at least the older ones
are, not sure about the ones they're shipping now) , so your missing
something in the setup process. I can't remember the exact procedure but
I've done what you are attempting many times.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

The organization I work for acquired a number of computers from
another organization w/Win2K Pro already installed. Unfortunately,
no Win2K intall disc was included. I am now attempting to install
Win XP Pro on these computers using Dell install discs (all
computers involved are Dells), but the install discs won't install
over an existing Win2K installation and doesn't include
functionality to delete the existing Win2K installation.

Does anybody have a solution to allow me to uninstall the Win2K
OSs, or simply format the hard drives, so I can install XP Pro?

If you have an ACTUAL Windows XP installation CD from Dell - it certainly
will allow you to delete the old partitions and create new ones. If you
have some sort of 'recovery CD set' from Dell - that may be a different
story (and unlikely to work because the image on the CD is likely for a
specific set of hardware.)

Do you have licenses for Windows XP for these new machines?