Can't boot from CD...

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c1v1c98

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I'm trying to reinstall XP and I cant get it to boot from cd. I've done this plenty of times and never had any problems. Is there any way to do it without booting from the cd? What might be the reason for it not boting from cd? Any help is much appreciated.
 
is this the same cd that you usually use? yor bios is set to boot from cd? you can try a bootdisk. do you have windows installed and working but just want to reinstall, if so, you can do it from the desktop
 
Yes, I do have windows already installed. I put the CD in and run the setup from my desktop, and it said the version I have is newer than the version on the disk and it wont let me do anything.
 
you need to fdisk and format it with a windows 98 oem bootdisk, then it will give you the ability to boot from the cd
 
I think I am having a problem similiar to the one posted above. I am trying to reinstall Windows XP Professional. I have tried to this via the desktop, because it wouldn't boot from the CD, but it doesn't look like it did much. From the desktop, everything appears to be new, but I still have all my folders from the previous installation. Also, when I try to boot from the CD, it says, "Press any key to boot from CD..", and although I keep pressing buttons, it just goes straight to the WIndows Operation system, without installing or anything.

I have recently reinstalled Windows XP Home edition on my sisters laptop, doing everything the same way, but found no trouble. I have not found any difference in what I am doing to reinstall the OS. Would the fdisk and bootdisk work in this situation? If so, is there an explanation somewhere where I could do this?
 
what you did was called an inplace upgrade which just is similiar to a repair. Even whe you select format, all your folders from the programs you had installed, will still be there even thou the programs are no longer installed.
 
MrSpecial said:
Also, when I try to boot from the CD, it says, "Press any key to boot from CD..", and although I keep pressing buttons, it just goes straight to the WIndows Operation system, without installing or anything.

That is the same thing that happens to me. I've reinstalled a bunch of times and this has never happened.

I am too lost on the fdisk and Win98 oem bootdisk thing.
 
*******FDISK Tutorial*******

FDISK Tutorial


The Basics of Fdisk:
Primary partitions are the only one that are bootable. They're always the C: drive when active. Normally you can only have one (more with some special tricks etc.) Extended partitions are needed when you want more than one partition. You can only have ONE Extended partition. Logical Drives come into the Extended partition. They are handy since you know that you can only have one Primary and one Extended so you can get more than only two partitions. They would be your D:, E:, etc. drives.

First you need to reboot your system with the Boot Disk inserted.

1.At the A: prompt start "FDISK."

2.If asked to use Large Disc support say Yes.

3.The first screen looks like this:

Create Dos Partition or Logical Drive
Set Active Partition
Delete Partitions or Logical DOS Drives
Display Partition Information
Change current fixed drive. (In case you have two or more Hard Drivess)
So, to prepare you hopefully did a backup from your data. You did, didn't you ?!

4.Next we need to remove the existing partitions. So go to 3.

5.Next screen like this:

Delete Primary DOS
Delete Extended DOS
Delete Logical Drives
Delete Non-DOS
Delete always in the following order

Logical (All) > Extended > Primary (Last)

6.Go back to first screen after all partitions have been removed.

7.Now we need to setup our new partitions. Go to 1.

This screen looks like this:

Create Primary DOS
Create Extended DOS
Create Logical DOS Drives
Here we create in the following order

Primary > Extended > Logical Drives.

8.First create the Primary. If asked to use all space say No and enter the amount you wish for the C: drive. It should be set automatically to be the (only) Active partition. If not it may ask you or you have to select "2. Set active partition" from the main menu.

9.Next create the Extended Partition. Use all space left.

It probably advances automatically to the next step, creating the Logical DOS Drives.

10.Enter the amount you wish for the D: partition and than the rest for the third partition.

Think first about the size for the partitions.

OK now we're finished with FDISK so just exit it. Next you need to reboot with the disc still inserted and Format all partitions (the C: partition might need to be formatted with "format c: /s", check the Win95 tip). Another reboot and you can go ahead and install Windows.
 
You said that I need to reboot my computer with the boot disk inserted. I did a search on how to use a boot disk, but from what I can see I will need a floppy drive, which I don't have... Is it possible to create this boot disk with a CD-RW disk, or does it need to be a floppy. If it does, then is there any other way to getting Windows to boot from the CD?
 
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