Installing XP OS

[Eve]

Help--I purchased a used computer from work with no
operating system. I purchased Windows XP Home Edition (I
made sure it was not the upgrade only)and when I put it in
the cd drive all I get is "invalid system disk, rplace the
disk and press any key.

Please help.

Thanks

[Shenan T. Stanley]

Eve <> wrote:
> Help--I purchased a used computer from work with no
> operating system. I purchased Windows XP Home Edition (I
> made sure it was not the upgrade only)and when I put it in
> the cd drive all I get is "invalid system disk, rplace the
> disk and press any key.

You have to get into your system BIOS and change it to boot from the CD
drive.

Every BIOS is different, but usually at power-on you get a hint like "Press
F2 to eneter system setup" or "Press DEL to enter the system BIOS" etc.

Then you will have to find the Boot Order and make sure the CDROM drive is
first.

--
Shenan Stanley
"Just trying to help"
-------------------------
How to use XPs Help and Support
http://tinyurl.com/fltf

How to Use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups
http://tinyurl.com/fkja

How to use Google
http://www.google.com/help/basics.html
http://tinyurl.com/fkmc
-------------------------

[Eve]

Thank you for your help! Much appreciated


>-----Original Message-----
>Eve <> wrote:
>> Help--I purchased a used computer from work with no
>> operating system. I purchased Windows XP Home Edition (I
>> made sure it was not the upgrade only)and when I put it
in
>> the cd drive all I get is "invalid system disk, rplace
the
>> disk and press any key.
>
>You have to get into your system BIOS and change it to
boot from the CD
>drive.
>
>Every BIOS is different, but usually at power-on you get
a hint like "Press
>F2 to eneter system setup" or "Press DEL to enter the
system BIOS" etc.
>
>Then you will have to find the Boot Order and make sure
the CDROM drive is
>first.
>
>--
>Shenan Stanley
>"Just trying to help"
>-------------------------
>How to use XPs Help and Support
>http://tinyurl.com/fltf
>
>How to Use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups
>http://tinyurl.com/fkja
>
>How to use Google
>http://www.google.com/help/basics.html
>http://tinyurl.com/fkmc
>-------------------------
>
>
>.
>

[Ken Blake]

In , Eve wrote:

> Help--I purchased a used computer from work with no
> operating system. I purchased Windows XP Home Edition (I
> made sure it was not the upgrade only)and when I put it in
> the cd drive all I get is "invalid system disk, rplace the
> disk and press any key.


Almost certainly it's trying to boot from the hard drive, and
you're getting that message because there is no operating system
there.

The order in which it tries various devices to boot from is set
in the BIOS. You want to change that to put the CD drive first.
Go into your BIOS setup program and change it there.

By the way, assuming that you own a previous version of Windows,
you should have made sure it *was* the upgrade version, since
it's cheaper than the full version, and more versatile than the
OEM version. Despite what many people think, you *can* do a clean
installation from the upgrade version. The requirement to use an
upgrade version is to *own* a previous qualifying version, not to
have it installed. All you need to do to do a clean installation
with an upgrade is insert the previous qualifying version's CD as
proof of ownership when prompted to do so.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

[sqr [MVP]]

The reason for the non system disk error is that your hard drive is free of
an OS as you have stated.

You can install windows xp a number of ways, one if your cd rom cannot boot
even from the bios you can download the 6 setup disks which are on floppies
from M$ website also try and boot from an old 9x/ME bootdisk which has CD
rom support, fdisk and format the hard drive and place the contents of the
i386 folder from the XP cd onto a temp dir on the hard drive. When this is
done run "winnt.exe" from the folder to begin a dos install. Just follow the
prompts.

FYI you did not need to buy the full XP release as an upgrade disk is all
you need if you have access to a Win9X cd which is needed just to verify a
previous OS.

--
sqr
Overseer: alt.os.windows-xp
--
"Shenan T. Stanley" > wrote in message
...
> Eve <> wrote:
> > Help--I purchased a used computer from work with no
> > operating system. I purchased Windows XP Home Edition (I
> > made sure it was not the upgrade only)and when I put it in
> > the cd drive all I get is "invalid system disk, rplace the
> > disk and press any key.
>
> You have to get into your system BIOS and change it to boot from the CD
> drive.
>
> Every BIOS is different, but usually at power-on you get a hint like
"Press
> F2 to eneter system setup" or "Press DEL to enter the system BIOS" etc.
>
> Then you will have to find the Boot Order and make sure the CDROM drive is
> first.
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> "Just trying to help"
> -------------------------
> How to use XPs Help and Support
> http://tinyurl.com/fltf
>
> How to Use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups
> http://tinyurl.com/fkja
>
> How to use Google
> http://www.google.com/help/basics.html
> http://tinyurl.com/fkmc
> -------------------------
>
>

[David]

>By the way, assuming that you own a previous version of Windows,
>you should have made sure it *was* the upgrade version, since
>it's cheaper than the full version, and more versatile than the
>OEM version. Despite what many people think, you *can* do a clean
>installation from the upgrade version. The requirement to use an
>upgrade version is to *own* a previous qualifying version, not to
>have it installed. All you need to do to do a clean installation
>with an upgrade is insert the previous qualifying version's CD as
>proof of ownership when prompted to do so.

Personally. I think it's better to pay the extra money and get the
Full version. Just in case you mis-place your previous OS disk and are
unable to aquire another. Kind of a hold-over from when I tried to
re-install the Win95 upgrade, But couldn't find all my Win3.11
floppies( which had to ve installed rather then just inserted in the
floppy drive. ). I also usually recommend Pro over Home because you
never know when you might need or want that one feature that's not
available in the lower package. I have a friend that I kept telling to
get Pro. She and her husband decide to get Home instead, Then called
me to ask how to use Encryption and the NTFS Security. Arrrgh!!. I
told them to fork out another $200 and get Pro like I told them in the
first place


David

[Ken Blake]

"David" > wrote in message
...
>
> >By the way, assuming that you own a previous version of
Windows,
> >you should have made sure it *was* the upgrade version, since
> >it's cheaper than the full version, and more versatile than
the
> >OEM version. Despite what many people think, you *can* do a
clean
> >installation from the upgrade version. The requirement to use
an
> >upgrade version is to *own* a previous qualifying version, not
to
> >have it installed. All you need to do to do a clean
installation
> >with an upgrade is insert the previous qualifying version's CD
as
> >proof of ownership when prompted to do so.
>
> Personally. I think it's better to pay the extra money and get
the
> Full version. Just in case you mis-place your previous OS disk
and are
> unable to aquire another.


Each to his own. I think it's crazy to pay that much extra money
just as insurance against losing a CD. Worst case, you could
almost certainly buy another qualifying CD on eBay for less money
than the difference in price between the Upgrade and Full
versions.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup