Hi, im having trouble formatting my computer to install xp. it previously had 2000 on and when i chose the upgrade option it blue screened after installation and I couldn't even open it in safe mode. So i've now formatted from dos with a start up floppy. My c drive is on a separate 6 gig drive with d&e on a partition 20gig one. Now when i boot up with the xp disc in install in comes up with the same blue screen as though it hasn't even formatted it?

Then i tried an ME disc but as it tryed to install, it came up with an error window with a code ..13 on the end which meant it wanted me to create a dos partition. It seems like it isnt formatting! I spent all night swearing at it and I fear tonight it may come to blows. Does anyone know whats going on here?

So you have tried booting from the XP Disc? If not, or even if so, boot from the XP Disc and then choose to install a fresh copy, then there will be an option to format your hard drive then install XP on it. If it blue screens or something when it's trying to format again, let me know, then I'll do some more research into the problem.

You won't normally get a DOS boot disk to format a Windows 2000 drive properly if it was using the NTFS file system rather than FAT32.

You might like to visit www.bootdisk.com where you can probably obtain an XP floppy boot disk.

OK thanks. Was it unwise to update 2000 with xp rather than doing a full format?

Well ..............

Lots of people DO install Windows XP as an upgrade from their current operating system but, from what I've heard, most of the time it doesn't work!

Personally, I would never upgrade an OS - I always format and start from scratch. But I'm a techie - that's my job. Most people don't find it so easy.

Yes, I too always format then put on a new OS, not just put it on over/as an upgrade to another OS. Saves me from troubles most of the time.

Generally speaking it's more neat and tidy not to upgrade, i've seen many people mess up their PCs by upgrading OS's lol