Bill Ruef wrote:
> Hi folks. Hoping somebody can help me out here.
>
> I recently bought a used computer for my son on ebay. I was under the
> impression that it would come with the HD wiped and I would install my own
> OS (Win98 w/ an XP Home upgrade. But when the computer arrived, I found it
> had XP Pro installed on it already. At first I thought "Great - will just
> stick with that". Problem is the unit was pulled from a school when they
> upgraded and therefore, pretty much everything on it is password protected
> (and there ain't much chance of getting the passwords from the seller). I
> can't even get into the "Start" menu (clicking on the button does nothing).
> So I figured I'd go back to plan A and reformat the HD and install my own
> O.S. But I can't even seem to do that. I can't even get into the setup menu
> on boot-up because that's also password protected. I've tried booting with a
> start-up disc but it doestn't seem to be recognizing that.
> I'm relatively new to working with XP and although done reformat &
> reinstalls before, I've never done it with an XP system. So I don't know if
> I'm overlooking something relatively simple or if there's a way to get in
> there or what. Anybody have any ideas or help they can offer?
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
>
Bill,

Can you get to the BIOS settings? You probably need to reorder the boot
sequence so it will boot from a startup diskette or from the OS CD.
Worst case, replace the hard drive. If you have another 'puter at hand,
put this one in it and reformat. Note, too, that this one is likely
formatted NTFS which will NOT be recognized by Win9x systems.

Interesting challenge.

Myron E. Williams
Crossville, TN