Dear All
Can you please do me favor and let me know how can I install Windows XP on an Linux server ? Please be informed that I have installed CentOS 5 on my Intel Celeron laptop but I wrongly chose "Remove existing directories" when installing the Linux . At now I have the CentOS 5 completely installed but I cannot install the Windows XP again . Can you please let me know how to rescue ?
Thank you in advance
Regards
H.Motamedi

Why can't you install XP? Did you try booting with XP cd inserted?

Thank you for your reply . I tried to boot from Windows XP CD but the system just goes to booting the CentOS 5 kernel after restart . Can you please let me know how can I boot from Windows XP CD ?
Regards
H.Motamedi

Did you set the option in the BIOS to boot from CD ?

Thank you for your message . Yes , I did but it didn't boot from CD .

Seems to me there is a problem with the windows CD

Remember to save and exit after editing bios.

You sure you have a bootable xp cd? try it on another machine.

XP cds need a keypress to start setup. Notice if there's any screen after bios saying 'press any key'

Sorry . Please be informed that it can be upgraded to RedHat 9 if I place its installation CD into CDROM drive . Can you please let me know if it does not come from that "Removing all partitions on this machine" and if so how can I rescue ?
Regards
H.Motamedi

No, since you can boot other cd's.
The CD is broken or corrupt.
Try to use it on another computer.

Sorry . I found the problem . It comes from the fact that my internal CDROM has not being mounted and so it is not as an active device under BIOS settings . Can you please let me know how can I mount it ?
Regards
H.Motamedi

But you can
I don't see why it won't boot the XP cdrom then.

Yes , you are right . When I put RedHat 9 installation CD it can be booted to install the RedHat 9 without any difficulty . But when I put Windows XP installation CD , it does not read the CD and just boots from its CentOS 5 kernel .

Then the CD is corrupt or broken.
Did you try to boot the CD on another computer, or use another CD?

The cd is corrupted or it may have some problem with your drive. Get another disc

Who will tell. On my previous computer, installing XP was impossible without first wiping any trace of any other operating system off ALL my hard drives*! The fact that it installed just fine after that would indicate that neither the install cd nor the optical drive were bad. More like an additional feature you get for free on top of what you pay for...


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*I did not really wipe those drives, of course - I just unplugged them except the one that I needed to install XP on. Since it was an empty drive, the install cd did not detect any "malicious" OS and it installed "without a hitch".