Operating system upgrade failed

[Pietro]

Hi,

I am having great problems with this operating system that failed to install, i have searched high and low for a way to reslove this.

I have a box that currently has Windows XP, i am upgrading that to Windows 2003 server, this is becuase i want to create a small network at home to help me study for the MCP exam.

I wanted to do an upgrade, but Windows 2003 wont allow upgrade from Windows XP so i have selected Fresh install. The Windows 2003 cd was currupt now i have this problem that it thinks it has to finish the installation of windows 2003 and wont allow me to boot of another cd.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Pietro.

[merlin_2]

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?id=810613

[Raptor]

Why can you not reformat?

[Pietro]

i cant get setup to start again, only Windows 2003 will boot from cd, and that is currupt, it wont let me get past the first screen.

[Raptor]

i cant get setup to start again, only Windows 2003 will boot from cd, and that is currupt, it wont let me get past the first screen.

Is it an illegal copy?

[Pietro]

its a copy that has not been looked after very well, its got many scratches on it.

[Raptor]

Can not help you with that. You may be able to clean the CD. If it is too badly damaged, you will have to find a replacement.

[Pietro]

yer but how can i get rid of the installation to start fresh?

[Raptor]

Try interrupting it with a bootable diskette. Set the first boot device to FDD.

I do not know if the following would work, but perhaps mounting is a slave allows you to reformat it.

[Pietro]

this is what i had in mind, mounting it as slave on another box, formatting it using command prompt and installing it as master again back into the pc where it came from.

[Raptor]

this is what i had in mind, mounting it as slave on another box, formatting it using command prompt and installing it as master again back into the pc where it came from.

Be careful that it doesn't try to install the corrupted installation on your Master.  

[Pietro]

haha, nah its working fine now, what do you think of MCP and MCSE exams?

[Raptor]

haha, nah its working fine now, what do you think of MCP and MCSE exams?

Never heard of those. What kind of animals are they?

[Pietro]

Mcp - Microsoft Certified Person
MCSE - Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

[iammichael5]

windows 2003 is a server os, windows xp is a cilent os, so you can't upgrade from a cilent os to a server os

[Pietro]

thank you for that advice, i am well aware of that.

[Mac]

I would make a copy of the 2003 Server CD using NERO. Copy to HDD first and then to a new good quality CDR using data verification and see if the new CD is any better.

I have XP on drives C: and D: and had Server 2003 installed to a folder on drive F: for a while.

[Pietro]

ok i might give that a try thanx mac.