[Mishell]

Hello,
first, thanks so much for your time in responding to this.

We bought a second hand computer that had an unliscenced version of windows xp professional. am now trying to instal a new liscenced version of xp home (it is a full version not just an upgrade). tried installing it over the top of the old one and we seemed to have some odd things:
- left over folders and files of old programs (but those programs did not show in the add/remove software list)
- norton antivirus (liscenced version) would not install (previously installed happily on old unliscenced version of xp).
the guy we bought the pc from told me he had cleaned up the pc and removed all other files. there only appears to be one partition.

i have printed out the microsoft support pages on how to partition and format a hard disk in windows xp so that we could 'start again' with a clean slate. The main problem I have following the instructions is that when I switch the computer on it goes straight to the XP page, it doesn't show a dos screen at all so I can't seem to 'boot from cd'.

in summary my questions are:
1. is reformatting the disk the recommended course of action so as to start from a clean slate? ( we have saved separately the few files we need).
2. how do i 'boot from cd' or get into the 'dos screen' when my pc goes straight to the xp page? i never get to see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message.
3. If following the microsoft support article (313348) on how to partition and format a hard disk in windows xp, then....
3a: should I used the xp setup program or fdisk tool to reformat disk.
3b: I don't know if I need to do this....
"Important things to consider before you partition and format your hard disk
Consider the following questions before you partition and format your hard disk: • Have you prepared the hard disk by following the manufacturer's instructions?

Set the jumpers and the cabling according to the role of the hard disk (for example, master or subordinate) and make any required BIOS (or CMOS) changes. See the documentation that came with your hard disk and motherboard, or contact the manufacturers. " - this is from article 313348
3c how do i know if the hard disk has a 'drive overlay or a disk management program?' i suspect not.


Kind regards
Michelle