Brett wrote:

> "Donny Broome" wrote:
>
>> For what purpose are you booting the PC with a floppy? A bootable DOS
>
> My ex bought a supposedly new unused XP Pro CD from a "friend" of
> hers. The CD had been used before and when she went to activate the
> operating system, she was told that the CD had been activated too
> many times.


An erroneous and very misleading message. You can reactivate asmany times as
you need or want to. There is no limit. When you get the message, just call
the number given to activate over the phone.


> I want to install an old version of 98 I have from an
> old system, but the CD is a full version and won't let me install
> over XP Pro. I can't find out how to return her pc to its pre XP
> state and want to format her c: drive so that my 98 version will load.



No need to install Windows 98, as I said above, but if you want to, read on.

You can't format an NTFS partition from DOS. To install Windows 98, what you
need todo from the boot diskette is run FDISK, remove the NTFS partition
(it will be identified as non-DOS partition), then create a new partition.
You can then format the partition you've created and install Windows 98
normally.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
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