Installing Windows XP again

[Deano777]

Hi All

I have this slight problem, I have bought a genuine copy of Win XP home from eBay (it is genuine), and I am trying to install it onto the father in law's computer, he already has Win XP on his PC that someone put on there, but let's say this version is "not so genuine", now being the decent chap that he is he wants a genuine version on there hence why I bought a copy for him from ebay.
I thought it would simply be a case of putting the CD into the drive and rebooting, then follow a setup prompt, but this is not the case, on reboot it does not start the install. When his copy of windows boots and then I browse the disk it has an install wizard but it won't allow us to install the new version on the disk because it says that the current windows version is newer than the version on the genuine disk.
I have tried a boot disk to get a DOS prompt on startup but this does not work either, the PC seems to want to disregard a startup disk and boot straight to windows again.

Has anyone got any ideas on how I can get Windows installed?

Thanks in advance

Dean

[matelot]

Originally Posted by Deano777

... on reboot it does not start the install...

I have to ask: are you set to boot from the CD in BIOS?

Then I'd be inclined to back up all personal work, partition the disk for flexibility, and then do a clean install.

[Deano777]

Hi Matelot

That was exactly the problem thanks, I posted my original post then checked this, all is installed great now thanks

[matelot]

No probs.