Hello everyone, I have a major problem installing windows xp pro v4.78 SP2 on a friend's comp (remote support). All this started because of a spyware. I was not able to get rid of it and I had to reinstall. Since normal startup was not possible, and we did not have a boot cd, we had to start the setup from safe mode. Everything installed but, when it restarted, all we got was a blank screen. I found out that the earlier copy of windows was still there. Now we are able to go to safe mode in the already present copy. If we get to the boot options menu after switching on the pc, we have 2 options -> Windows XP Professional - leads to the older installation -> Setup - leads to a blank screen Can someone help us out please?

Did you start the setup from install files on the hard drive then? Didn't you select the upgrade option?

Wether in safemode or not...you cannot install windows over itself. Change Is Good http://www.citizenlink.org/Stopligh...

@Steve - the version already installed was higher than the one we were trying to install. So there was no upgrade option. The only option was "New install (advanced)" (something like that). @lurkswithin - Any solution? :)

Make a new partition and format it to Fat 32 and install DOS 7 on that partition. Download smartdrv.exe to the Dos system Copy the i386 folder from XP to the DOS partition. boot to DOS and format the original XP partiton and format it to FAT 32 (Can convert it later) run smartdrv.exe (type C:\smartdrv.exe at command prompt) run 16bit Windows XP installer (type C:\I386\winnt.exe) where C:\ is the newly formatted FAT32 (Old XP partition) This will take 1 to 2 hours to do this proceedure but it will come out as a clean installation. Remove DOS after the installation or leave it as dual boot! Change Is Good http://www.citizenlink.org/Stopligh...

If you have Xp install files (or any install Cd with same version of XP as is installed - will need to be exactly same version, eg XP Pro OEM or retail or corporate for key to work), you could use something like nlite to slipstream SP3 (plus ie7 or 8 and mp11 if wanted) into the install & create an install CD if you want. That would allow upgrade or if boot from said CD, repair reinstall:- http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... (lurkswithin - what's that about not being able to install XP on top of itself - I do it routinely for a variety of reason, eg, migrating customer's current installation to a new machine)

Steve Dunn In answer to Lurkswithin's comment I think he meant you can't install Windows on top of itself while running that copy. razer Is there a desire to recover some data? So, are there TWO instances of WinXP on the same partition?