hard drive recovery issue

[Grumpyjim]

Hi

I'm trying to install windows 7 on an old hard drive and am having some grief.

It's got an xp installation and when you boot it says "This copy of Windows must be activated before you can log on". I've tried to bypass this by booting into safe mode but all attempts to mash f8 are fruitless, it simply wont give me the safe mode options.

I've tried to put the windows 7 cd in and boot from CD but get the message "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter". I've also tried other bootable disks with a copy of ubuntu and the ultimate boot cd - same message on both.

Any ideas how I can get rid of the existing installation?

PS sorry for the slightly misleading title...

Thanks in advance

Jim

 

[kirbz]

Hi Jim

Firstly check the bios for a setting that relates to external os's, some have this setting and will need enabling. It could also be possible that your cd drive doesn't like the brand of cd/dvd your using (ive had this).

Can you not use a USB stick ?

Also a daft question but you are booting from cd aren't you?

 

[ridgway90]

if you have a caddy or enclosure or some way of connecting to another computer you could format the entire drive, including any recovery or hidden partitions