XP Pro Uninstall

[Guest]

I recently purchased a cheap computer at a flea market. Someone installed XP
Pro but did not activate it. I don't want to activate it as I suspect it is a
pirated copy or someone has attempted to install XP Pro on more than one
machine. I can not get to the START button. How do I uninstall XP Pro

 

[Jay]

On 27.10.2004 11:23, John Barnes wrote:

--- Original Message ---

I recently purchased a cheap computer at a flea market. Someone installed XP
Pro but did not activate it. I don't want to activate it as I suspect it is a
pirated copy or someone has attempted to install XP Pro on more than one
machine. I can not get to the START button. How do I uninstall XP Pro

If you have a boot disk hanging around, then FDISK the drive and start over.

 

[R. McCarty]

It's also a good idea to run a DOD level Disk Zeroing on the drive.
This precludes most types of software recovery from retrieving any
old partitions/data from the drive. Just Google for "Disk Erase" &
there will be a number of free applications available. Most of them
run from a simple DOS boot floppy. Some are configurable as to
the erasure type and number of passes to run on the drive.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I recently purchased a cheap computer at a flea market. Someone
installed XP Pro but did not activate it. I don't want to activate
it
as I suspect it is a pirated copy or someone has attempted to
install
XP Pro on more than one machine. I can not get to the START button.
How do I uninstall XP Pro --
JPB

The normal way to "uninstall" any operating system is to format
the hard drive and install a new OS of your choice.

Only if you performed an upgrade from Win98/Me, elected to backup
the old system files, and didn't convert the partition to NTFS, can
you then boot into Safe Mode and click Start > Control Panel

Add/Remove Programs. All of these conditions must be met for the

uninstall option to be available.

Otherwise:

Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot
devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

--

Bruce Chambers

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[Alex Nichol]

I recently purchased a cheap computer at a flea market. Someone installed XP
Pro but did not activate it. I don't want to activate it as I suspect it is a
pirated copy or someone has attempted to install XP Pro on more than one
machine. I can not get to the START button. How do I uninstall XP Pro

Format the disk (preferably deleting the partition) in the course of
installing whatever OS you decide to use