had problems re-installing windows on friends pc for him. disk from pc suplier wont work only reason i can think of is some of it has been modified but dont know which pieces. i think maybe hard drive because original OS was windows ME, but current hard drive is formated with dynamic somethin or other and i have read that this type is only supported on windows 2000 or XP proffesional. have installed windows XP but did'nt get the option to format drive so all old files and what have u still on and i want rid of em.how can i do this or is there a way to install windows XP so that i can format the drive. i have done it on many pc's b4 but this is the 1st i had with Dynamic drive (normally basic) so can only think has something to do with that. any help would be greatly apprieciated. michael thanks in advance if u can help

I don't know why you did not get the notice to format the drive. The dynamic reference is probably what is in reference to partitioning the drive as dynamic volumns so as to read extra large drives as a single drive and not as smaller partitions and should not have any bearing on your formating that disc to install xp on. You need to make sure that 1st boot sequence is "boot to cd" in the bios and reboot with your xp inatallation disc in the cd-rom and when prompted to boot from cd you must hit a key to start the set up sequence and if you need to install third party drivers for that HDD then do so at the promt shortly after set up starts. It should go through the sequences to repair or install and then to formatting and so own. If you are not getting to that sequence then you are doing something wrong. like maybe choosing repair instead of install. Try it again as you will need the clean installation. IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

Try using a Windows 98 and FDISK-ing. -Andrew