having difficulty installing winxp sp1

[irtehmitchell]

a buddy of mine just built a new comp but used his old harddrive with win200pro installed on it. now when we boot up the computer it trys to load windows 2000 but gets a blue screen. i've been trying to get the thing to boot to the floppy so i can install winxp for him but it just isnt working. help please.
hes on a gigabyte K8Triton nForce3 mobo

 

[speed01]

If you just want to install XP, boot from the XP cd.

Speed

 

[mechBgon]

You don't need to boot from floppy to install WindowsXP, just put the WinXP CD into the drive and boot from CD. Keep in mind that you will need a new license (OEM or retail) to install WinXP on that system. Might as well grab a new HDD and an OEM WinXP CD & license from Newegg or someplace, if you're in that situation.

If you need a HDD recommendation, a Seagate 7200rpm drive with 8MB cache is a popular choice these days. They run quietly and have a 5-year warranty. Make sure to get an ATA/100 model in your case.

 

[irtehmitchell]

well its a 120gb 7200rpm and i have a copy of xp pro that i got online that works for like me and 3 of my friends

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: irtehmitchell
well its a 120gb 7200rpm and i have a copy of xp pro that i got online that works for like me and 3 of my friends

It sounds like you and your friends are committing software piracy.

 

[irtehmitchell]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: irtehmitchell
well its a 120gb 7200rpm and i have a copy of xp pro that i got online that works for like me and 3 of my friends

It sounds like you and your friends are committing software piracy.

we would never do such a thing

 

[mechBgon]

Oh good, that means you have a proper, bootable, hologram-top Microsoft WinXP CD then, and a separate, legit, unused license key for each computer, including the one you're working on now. Should be a cakewalk, boot from the WinXP CD and commence Setup, then give it your new license key when the time comes during Setup.

 

[irtehmitchell]

when he goes to boot from the winxp cd he gets an error message saying "NTLDR is missing"
edit: his friend decided to put the harddrive into his comp and format it...now hes getting that error message

 

[nweaver]

then you are either A: not booting from the CD Rom or B: Have a non bootable XP CD (Read, that nonhologram$23asianmarketeyepatchparrottoting XP cd is defective)