xp won't boot up and need to format new hard drive to start over

[frustratedinjersey]

I had to install a new hard drive to my notebook. while attempting to
install windows xp professional on to the new drive - it did not nstall
properly (my fault as i attempted a second time and used the same partition
which really screwed things up) so now when i try to boot up - it goes to the
windows loading screen for a few seconds and then the screen goes black and
nothing. No matter how i try to get it to recognize the xp install disk in
the dvd drive - nada. so my question is this. how do reformat the hard
drive - so i can start fresh and load in windows xp. I tried to change the
boot order, put in safe mode, debugging - nothing works. if someone could
tell me how to wipe out the new drive and start fresh, i would appreciate it
very much

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I had to install a new hard drive to my notebook. while attempting to
install windows xp professional on to the new drive - it did not nstall
properly (my fault as i attempted a second time and used the same
partition
which really screwed things up) so now when i try to boot up - it goes to
the
windows loading screen for a few seconds and then the screen goes black
and
nothing. No matter how i try to get it to recognize the xp install disk
in
the dvd drive - nada. so my question is this. how do reformat the hard
drive - so i can start fresh and load in windows xp. I tried to change the
boot order, put in safe mode, debugging - nothing works. if someone
could
tell me how to wipe out the new drive and start fresh, i would appreciate
it
very much

When the CD drive is the primary boot device and when you boot the machine
from a bootable CD or DVD then it does not matter at all what is on the hard
disk. The CD/DVD is in control. No exceptions.

If your machine refuses to boot into the Windows setup program then this can
be for the following reasons:
- The CD/DVD drive is not the primary boot device.
- The CD is not a boot CD (could be tested on another machine)
- The CD is damaged (ditto)
- The CD/DVD drive is marginal or damaged (could be tested with another boot
CD)
- The machine has a hardware problem (ditto)

 

[Terry R.]

On 1/19/2010 11:36 AM On a whim, frustratedinjersey pounded out on the
keyboard

I had to install a new hard drive to my notebook. while attempting to
install windows xp professional on to the new drive - it did not nstall
properly (my fault as i attempted a second time and used the same partition
which really screwed things up) so now when i try to boot up - it goes to the
windows loading screen for a few seconds and then the screen goes black and
nothing. No matter how i try to get it to recognize the xp install disk in
the dvd drive - nada. so my question is this. how do reformat the hard
drive - so i can start fresh and load in windows xp. I tried to change the
boot order, put in safe mode, debugging - nothing works. if someone could
tell me how to wipe out the new drive and start fresh, i would appreciate it
very much

If you place the DVD drive in front of the hard drive in the BIOS, with
the CD in the drive it should prompt you to press any key to boot from
the CD. If it doesn't do that, you don't have it set properly.

When the CD boots, delete all partitions and start clean. Hopefully you
created a verified backup of your data before doing this.


Terry R.