crashing- help needed!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter sarahj
  • Start date Start date
S

sarahj

my computer freezes at any time, i have been told its
because my laptop cannot handle windowsxp, i tried to
down grade it to windows 2000 but it said that the
function to remove xp had been disabled. i made a backup
disk of windows 2000 and tried to install from booting
up, but it just ran xp as normal. i cannot access bios to
change settings to read from hard disc from booting as it
is un accessable. this is a second hand laptop and i have
no idea what the previous owner has done to it. any ideas
or help would be appreciated
thanks x
 
If you have the name and model # of the laptop you will find information on the
manufacturers website on how to access the BIOS.
Once you have access to the BIOS you can change the boot up order as well as
activate the floppy boot.
http://www.bootdisk.com/
Here you will find various versions of boot disks that you can place on a floppy
and format your hard drive.
WARNING.........this will erase everything on the hard drive>>>>>>>>>
Then you can install any OS that you legally own
peter
 
Hi, Sarah.

It sounds like you are starting in the middle of the story. :>(

What make and model computer? What version of Windows was installed on it
when you got it? Computers that will run Win2K but not WinXP are quite
rare.

What gives you the idea that you can simply "down grade it to windows 2000"?
Or that "the function to remove xp had been disabled", because no such
function exists. The only way to remove WinXP from a computer is either to
delete its boot folder (typically C:\Windows) or to reformat the volume
where that folder lives. (Well, there is one other way, but ONLY if WinXP
was installed by UPGRADING from an earlier version - such as Windows 98 -
and the person upgrading selected the option to preserve the older Windows
files; if that happened, you should see an option in Add or Remove Programs
to revert to the prior operating system.)

It sounds like you need to contact the person who sold you this computer and
get the user's manual for it so that you can set it to boot from the CD.
Then insert the Win2K CD-ROM, reboot, and run the in-place upgrade as
described in:
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q292175

Better yet, since you apparently don't have a good idea of what garbage may
or may not have been installed on this computer, you should Clean Install
Win2K (if you're sure it can't handle WinXP) on it, including repartitioning
and/or reformatting the hard drive.

RC
 
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