Replacing WinME with WinXP Home

[chakka35]

Thanks for your reply oldbob. I have downloaded the boot disks as you recommended. Now how do I use a boot disk to format my hard drive?

[qapmoc]

If you have winXP then it must be on a CD which should be bootable, set your bios to boot from the cd first, boot from the cd and the XP installation program should give you the option to format the hard drive before starting the install and warnings about loss of data on the drive etc.. which you just accept.
If your CD is not bootable ?? and you have a boot diskette then you can format the drive by making sure that your bios is set to boot the A: drive first, then boot from the diskette and at the dos prompt type FORMAT C: /S then accept the warnings etc...

BUT if your cd is not bootable how will you install windows XP after you have formatted the drive?

[oldbob]

I hope you carefully followed the instructions on that web site I provided and you now have a Win98 floppy boot disk. If you have done so correctly and if your bios is set to "boot from floppy disk" all you have to do is to insert the floppy disk into the appropriate slot and re-boot (re-start) the computer. The computer will start up using the program on the floppy disk (it will probably say something like "starting Win98"). The screen will ultimately show an A: prompt. At the A: prompt type in the command "format C:" The screen will display a few warnings but provided you answer yes or enter at the correct places it will utimately format the hard drive (C:) as FAT 32. Once the format is completed (which totally erases the hard drive) ensure your bios is set to boot from CD Rom, shut down the computer, insert the Win XP installation CD into the CD Reader and re-boot the machine. The Win XP installation should now begin without further hassles.