Pissed off.

[Jason/Phoreum]

My windows XP professional was an illegal copy. Not to
mention that it was corrupted in some way and wouldn't
download any updates, etc.

Well, I have a legal copy of WinXP Home right here, that
I bought, and I want to put it on my computer and get rid
of XP. Well, the problem is that I have tried,
truthfully, about a dozen ways to uninstall XP
Professional. I've tried Windows/System32/osuninst.exe,
I've tried to reformat (which I want to do MOST, and
can't no matter what I try), I've tried looking in
Add/Remove Programs, tried running osuninst from command
prompt, tried putting in the XP Home cd and booting from
it, and there are more ways, but I forgot. NONE of them
have worked. NOTHING I found on this board helped either.

My computer also restarts when I'm away from it for
awhile, then says "A serious error occurred" when I get
back on. THEN, I get linked to a page about Online Crash
help, which directs me here to get updates, where I get
an error because (like I said) I can't update.

Is there any other way, besides stomping in my computer
out of frustration, that I can get rid of XP or reformat?
I'm getting so sick of this. If any help could be
directed to pho...@hotmail.com, it would be greatly
appreciated. Thank you for reading.

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

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

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

7. 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 XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

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

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

"Jason/Phoreum" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message:
news:021601c3c771$bbf0faf0$a601...@phx.gbl...

[Jason/Phoreum]

I changed the BIOS to boot from CDROM first, then IDE
something, then Floppy. It said:
Boot from CDROM...OK
Press any key to boot from CDROM

Well, hitting any key did nothing, and after about 5
seconds it just proceeded on its own. But it didn't boot
from the CDROM. The normal startup happened. Could it be
because I've currently got XP Professional, and the
actual CD I have is XP Home?

[Black]

XP or home does not have anything to do with the booting, Are you sure, your
cd rom is working? From what you have written it appears that you have
correctly changed your bios setup to boot from the cdrom, but it appears
that either your cd rom or the xp home cd itself is corrupt.

"Jason/Phoreum" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:03de01c3c7e3$b93b7110$a001...@phx.gbl...

[anon...@discussions.microsoft.com]

The XP Home CD isn't corrupt, I believe, because it
autoruns when I put it in normally. Also, I did put it in
the first one, and yeah I have two (CDROM and CD burner).

I'm having a CompUSA guy come over tomorrow, and if he
can't fix it, I'll just take out my video card and kick
in my system until I can't tell what it is. I would get
more enjoyment out of that at the moment. Thanks for the
help everyone.

>-----Original Message-----
>Make sure you have the CD in the first cd drive if you
have two as
>this is the one the systen see on boot.
>
>On Mon, 22 Dec 2003 00:07:07 +0500, "Black"
<black...@hotmail.com>
>wrote:

>.
>

[Black]

You may now like to remove the CD Burner before proceeding ahead as it
appears that your cdrom isn't installed as the first one. Hopefully this
time around you wouldn't face any problems.

<anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:023701c3c828$bf6b4070$a401...@phx.gbl...

[Kevin D. Goodknecht [MVP]]

In news:03de01c3c7e3$b93b7110$a001...@phx.gbl,
Jason/Phoreum <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> posted a question
Then Kevin replied below:
: I changed the BIOS to boot from CDROM first, then IDE

As Black said XP home is not the reason it won't boot to CDROM.

That said, XP Home is not in the upgrade path for XP Pro, you'll have to do
a clean install.

--
Best regards,
Kevin D4 Dad Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
Hope This Helps
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[Shenan Stanley]

crave wrote:
> Is there any other way,besides stomping in my computer out of
> frustration that I can't get rid of XP or reformat it so I can put
> windowsME on my computer?

I don't recommend (or can ever recommend) putting Windows ME on anything..

However..

Boot with the Windows XP CD.. Continue like you are installing Windows XP
until it asks you what partition to put XP on. Delete all partitions.

Then boot with your Bootable media (usually floppy diskette) for installing
Windows ME and put in the Windows ME CD and follow the steps you originally
did to install it in the first place.

That's it. You will have Windows ME installed on your computer.

--
<- Shenan ->
--

[Gary Karasik]

Unless you're absolutely certain it's ME you want, you might be better off
with W98se.

GaryK

"crave" <eric...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:86249056-4E45-499D...@microsoft.com...
> Is there any other way,besides stomping in my computer out of frustion

[Steven]

Hi Jason
I'm having exactly the same happen to me. Mine too is an illegal copy!!
Did you manage to sort out the problem?
PLEEZ help before I send my pc crashing from the 12th floor!!
Thanx
Steven
Cape Town, SA

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Microsoft does not offer any support for "illegal" copies Of Windows.
Go out and purchase a "legal version" of Windows and install it.

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

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

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

"Steven" <anon...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message:
news:6021C63B-8FB2-48CB...@microsoft.com...

[Gary Karasik]

Microsoft doesn't offer any support for legal copies either.

GaryK

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" <mrxp...@nospamyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:OFk3D0bG...@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

[Sir_George]

Gary,

Have you ever used any other OS? If so, how was the support?

--
Sir_George
For better access to newsgroups;
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp

"Gary Karasik" <gkarasik2fea.net> wrote in message
news:u91p9#bGEHA...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...