it is said that one needs to boot from a win 98 cd...access setup to change the bios to read first from the cd on boot-up and then boot from the cd, reformat the hard drive and then re-install. i am having trouble accessing my bios to change that it boots from the cd first but can not get into the setup. i have tried various key combinations such as esc, delete, f12 etc and also do not see the prompt and command for this. has anyone had experience re-installing xp without the admin password? perhaps there is an easier way than how i am trying to do it. also the win 98 OS disk must apparently be bootable but there is no way to tell if it is bootable or not. if i could access my bios it would certainly help. can anyone help... thx

Here are some statements that might help you out: The Windows 98 CD is not bootable. You must use a floppy startup diskette to boot the computer; then you run Setup.exe on the CD from the command prompt. You don't need to put any media (floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, etc.) in your machine to boot into the BIOS. You don't even need a hard drive attached. The BIOS is usually accessed by pressing a button (Del, F1, etc.) during the very first part of the boot process. Most machines display the key you need to press during the Power On Self Test. If your machine doesn't say something like "Press 'Del' to enter the BIOS," then take a look at your documentation or visit the motherboard manufacturer's web page. Since your CD-ROM seems to be listed as a boot device in your BIOS, you should have no problems starting XP setup. Put the XP CD into the drive, boot the computer, and press a key to "boot from ATAPI CD-ROM" when asked. Once you've entered setup, you can repartition and/or reformat your hard drive first and then install XP, or you can just install XP over the previous installation. This last one will leave a lot of worthless files on your hard drive, leftovers from the previous installation. You don't need an Administrator password to do any of this. I don't know why the Admin password is important to you, unless you've encrypted data files on your computer so they cannot be accessed by another user account. If that's the case, you can go here to reset the Admin password on the current installation: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do, but the above info should clear up some of your options for you.

thanks tropic...but, how do I get a floppy startup diskette? this is becoming confusing as i have been reading today, if i remember correctly, that from XP one can only use the boot cd and not a floppy boot disk?!!?? also, i have no documentation for the computer and can therefore not find out what keystrokes i need to access bios. in any case, if a boot floppy is the way to go....can you recommend how or where i may find one to download...

The XP CD itself is bootable, and it's a lot quicker than using the XP setup diskettes. If you can boot from the CD, by all means do so. It's a lot less hassle. If you cannot get the CD to boot (and cannot get into your BIOS to enable your CD-ROM as a boot device), go here to download the proper Microsoft XP setup diskettes: http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm This page gives links to the different startup diskettes on Microsoft's server. Be sure to download the proper diskette set--there are four of them: Home, Home w/ SP1, Pro, & Pro w/ SP1. Download the set, make your bootdiskettes, and boot your computer from the first diskette. You'll be prompted to put in the subsequent diskettes at the proper times. This loads the same setup environment as booting from the CD does, but it takes a good deal longer to do it from the diskettes. You'll be able to partition & format your drive if you'd like, and start XP setup. It's a pretty straightforward process.

I also had to reinstall XP. When it aks for your administrator password, dont type in anything....just press ENTER.