Attempting reformat

[Moron]

Ok so i'm selling my laptop, to a mate but before I do so i wanted to reformat and put a nice new windows XP on it just so all my stuff is off it. It's an acer travelmate 4051, which i have already done a reformat and reinstall of windows before. This time however I can't remember how I did it. I need to boot from the cd but can't get into the bios cause the password which I have never known. Anyone got an idea how i did it before cause it's driving me nuts!!!
Tried using the recovery console but not exactly doing anything i acutally want it to. All i need is a clean wipe and fresh install of XP. Got the recovery cd's that came with it which i used last time, if that helps.
Please someone save me from spending another days trying to fix it.!!!!

 

[Mel_P]

Just stick the windoze CD in and choose reinstall ?

If it doesn't boot from it can you run xp install from the CD in explorer?

 

[Moron]

i've tried that, but some reason the acer recovery cd's with xp pro on don't auto run. And when u open them in my computer there's 2 dat. files and a bunch of image files. Which i don't remember from last time.

I thought i had fixed it as i got to the blue screen bit about deleting old partitiona ect..., tried getting rid of my one and says can't do it as the partiation has files being used by the setup. Plus now when the laptop loads it gives me 3 options boot to windows xp pro - which now doesn't load (can't read from selected boot disk), the recovery console which i don't know how to use, and finally the windows xp pro setup - which takes u to the blue screen delete the partion bit/reformat but again doesn't let me do it.

I've thought about taking the hard drive out the laptop and hooking it up to my desktop and wiping it that way but, i removed the 1 screw hodling the hard drive but it still won't move and i don't want to remove the entire laptop casing.

I really should have stayed in bed!!

Any other suggestions.

 

[Moron]

ok different problem now. I've sorted the hard drive so it's blank, i've tested my oem home cd in it which works and boots fine.

What i need to know is how the 3 cd's i have from Acer, 2 recovery xp pro disk which aren't bootable ie can't do normal operating system install and a system cd which is bootable but when that's in it doesn't go to the blue install windows screen.

there's gotta be a way to install using the xp pro cd's, it's just they don't boot up when there in the cd drive????

what do i do, help