I just bought an HP laptop with XP Home preinstalled. It runs great, but I would prefer to wipe it & re-install my Win2k Pro so I can join my domain & because I like Win2k better anyway. Something else that might rear it's ugly head is the fact that I only have a CD & no floppy on the laptop.
Is there any easy way to do this? Also, can I (& how do I) re-install the other software from the restore disks? They don't look to be too user friendly...
Thanks in advance!!

If you have a Windows 2000 CD, that itself is bootable, so you simply pop in the CD (make sure in BIOS set CDROM as the first boot device).

The installation will give you options to delete the existing partition(s), and you just carry on from there, only thing you need to remember is that if your notebook is new, Win200 may not have the drivers for them, so make sure you have a full set of drivers BEFORE you remove XP.

As to the software on CD, those are recovery discs, chances are low extracxting anything from them.

Providing you can boot/install W2K via the CD (as suggested by 'robmlc'), no need of removing (all) partitions; just install W2K alongside current XP. Also install all required apps/utils afresh for W2K.

W2K will (probably) go in as windows - as winnt is already in use by XP. W2K will overwrite the XP mbr etc; will disable access to XP; and there will (should) be no evidence of XP in the boot-menu etc.

Once W2K installed OK, just locate/delete the XP folder etc.; also make the ERD for W2K. Once XP has been deleted, defrag drive to tidy up the scene...

Removing all partitions etc. is a viable route, but it should not be necessary here? As long as you defrag drive afterwards to clean up, the end result will be much the same; and your data will also still be secure on the drive? But it would be wise to back-up/save data alsewhere first - just to be on safe side?

Before you start out with W2K, advisable to run the chkupgrd.exe util (on the CD - usually). It will generate a report on what is/isn't OK for W2K; after-which obtain all required drivers etc... The util can be run from the CD (usually via any installed OS), and also via a suitable boot-disk (with CDROM support).

Doubt you will be able to extract/use apps. from the recovery CD...