Re: Installation Blocked - later version installed

Dear Ken and Shenan, thanks for your assistance. I was able to get around
this by first managing to get in on a command prompt in safe mode and
reinstalling optional components of XP. This includes networking. It wouldn't
reboot normally, but I was able to come up in safe mode with networking. I
then uninstalled SP2, keeping my fingers crossed. To my surprise, the system
came up, all my user files intact. What I'm going to do now is decide whether
to re-install SP2 or reinstall XP all-together.

Before doing the above, I discovered that there were two programs in the
windows\downloaded programs folder that were damaged. They were flash and
shockwave. I deleted them, but it didn't accept my delete, saying it didn't
have enough information to do so. I then uninstalled flash via the control
panel. This didn't get rid of the two damaged files, either, they're still
there. When I come up for air, I'll reinstall flash and see if it clears.

Ken, I tried to boot off the CD as you said, but it turns out my CD drive is
not in the boot lineup. It used to be. When I bought XP Pro, I wiped the old
system clean and installed it. Apparently I lost Dell's program that, when
you hit PF2, enables you to specify the boot sequence. When I tried to
install Dell's diagnostics, hoping htis program was amongst them, it wouldn't
allow me to install anything, saying it wasn't a Dell system.

I tell ya, there are more obstacles to getting work done than you can shake
a stick at!

Well, thanks again, I'll consider the inquiry closed.

Regards,
Linda

"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:08:00 -0700, Close one IE window, they all
close <CloseoneIEwindowtheyallclose@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi, I need to re-install Windows XP


Why? How do you know? That's very seldom the correct solution to a
problem.


and Setup tells me I have a newer version


That's because you have a Service pack installed that's not on your
Windows CD. But it doesn't matter, because if you get that message,
you're trying to do the installation incorrectly. It sounds like you
are trying to do a repair installation, rather than reinstalling
cleanly.

When you do a correct clean reinstallation, it begins by formatting
the drive, thereby deleting Windows and everything else on the drive
(so backup everything you need to keep first). Therefore what version
of Windows you already have doesn't matter, because it's about to go
away.

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

.

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