Well i found out the source of my problems, it was a bad ide cable (brand new, but go figure.) anyway i finally got the dvd drive to boot up and load the cd, which created a new problem. the cd takes me on some kind of trip, mentioning msdos alot and then after what could have been a russian sat test for all i understood of it, it ends with a flashing prompt, it listed i think 3 or 4 choices, i dont remember what it was, not sure it matters though, cause i never saw a mention of windows. the thing of it is though it seems kind of foolish to run out and buy a new xp cd seeing as i have a valid key, just because microsoft is a money grubbing conglomerate. i did check the cd on another computer, i didnt boot on it but i opened the file and it loaded the windows program before i canceled out. any ideas of what i was seeing and what that prompt could have been, i mean i didnt see any mention of windows at all, except when i opened the file on the working computer. i searched around for awhile to find a good copy of an xp cd and there were alot of good comments as to how perfectly it worked, and it did work on the computer that was already set up, so i dont understand why it wouldnt start to set it up on the other computer. i almost forgot, the hdd i'm trying to install on already has xp installed from another computer factory installed. any suggestions guys? thanks. -props1oh1
