Problems with re installing windows xp

Hi,
i reaaalllly need some help.
I hope i've posted this in the right place, appologies if i havn't

I've recently re installed windows onto my Dell inspiron 1330 laptop. After it had finished installing i realised that i had accidently inserted the wrong dell disc. It has now installed windows xp media center edition instead of the normal edition of windows xp that i would usually use.

This has caused many problems and conflictions, because now my sound isn't working and since then the dvd drive has not been working correctly either. The DVD drive is a Sony DVD +-RW DW-Q58A slim type.
I have installed all the dvd drivers from the website but they didn't seem to help.

The drive recognizes and runs the Windows media center edition disc with no problems, but it does not recognize or run any other discs at all even tho they all work fine on my desktop pc. I just want the normal windows xp back onto my laptop but now i cannot run the normal xp installation disc.

I would apreciate it if anyone could give me some advice on how to get it back to normal.
Thanx in advance! Amy

 

Re: problems with re-installing windows xp

First off I am not an expert however if you want regular XP back you will need to re-format the drive that you have XP Media Center Edition (MCE) installed on. You might be able to do this through Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management. When you get there you should be able to select the hard drive and re-format it (note re-formatting will completely destroy all data so if you have something on there back it up), but since it is the hard drive that the XP MCE is installed on you might not be able to format. Having said all that, whenever you try and install XP there is always an option to format the drive you wish to install it on. Now if you are installing from one of Dell's recovery CD's maybe that is not an option.

As for the DVD drive not working have to gone to Dell's website and looked for an updated driver? XP MCE and XP are essentially the same OS I don't think that there is a different driver needed to oporate a DVD drive between the two OSs.

 

Hello Amy and welcome to the Board

XP install how to - use the "clean "
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/setup.html


Hello mtiffany and welcome

Windows can't format the boot partition/drive while in Windows. It has to be done with a boot disk, which the XP CD is.

Formating non boot partitions is as you decribe.

Regards - Charles