install winxp

[wixostrix]

im trying to install XP on this laptop (dell c610) and it has no windows on it now cause the harddrive was formatted. anyway, when i put a win 2000 disc in it says no bootable device but when i put a winxp disc in it just sits. any help?

 

[PC eye]

You may want a quick look in the bios to see if the cd rom option has been disabled in the boot devices section and assign that as the first boot device. Since laptops come with preinstalled versions of Windows already on them the option to boot from the optical is often disabled with the hard drive set as the only boot device. Or it was simply moved back seeing the hard drive listed first there. You can also try pressing the F8 key to see if that model has the option to select the boot device to load. That would seen along with the key assigned to enter the bios setup program.

 

[wixostrix]

thanks. i got it. when i boot with the disc already in the drive it works. weird, but whatever.

 

[kof2000]

most laptops you have to hit a key to boot from the cd or else it will boot form you hdd.

 

[PC eye]

Even on desktops you will see the "press any key in..." come up regardless. I go through that enough when multibooting OSs here. It's the same when booting from a board's software disk or a drive partitioning tool like GParted. You certainly want the disk in the drive when going to boot from it or... ?