Doh, I've set meself right up for a fall here haven't I
First off, we are assuming you have a windows XP disk....it may be labelled up in the logo of your PC's supplier, but if you don't have one, stop right now!!!
Make sure you've backed up all your info...in particular, your email settings and passwords.....your favourites from IE and any documents you may have on the PC....check out the files and settings wizard from the start>accessories if you're not sure about this....
Ok, step one...you need to be able to boot (start the PC) using this disk, and not the OS (operating system) installed on your c drive.....so we need to change the boot order in your BIOS........
BTW, if you're a 1200 owner, print this all out, then write it out as well...if you're an 11xx owner, you should be OK reading it all through and just doing it
Reboot the PC, and hit F2, Delete, F11 or whatever button it is that says (albeit briefly) on startup something like 'Hit xxxxx to enter bios'........
You can just do a normal reboot (start>restart) and watch the screen carefully...it will tell you which button to hit next time 'round
So we now know what button to hit........reboot, press that button and you'll be taken in to the BIOS.
Look at the key instructions...up, down, enter, edit etc.......
It may look something like this......but then again, it may not...you'll have to follow your nose......
What you're after doing is changing the boot sequence so the PC boots from the CD first, (may be listed as IDE1) rather than the c drive........
Don't worry too much...there aren't many things that you can change that will damage the PC (don't go anywhere near anything that says anything about memory, overclocking, bus speed etc)
That sounds really bad, but it's not.......all you are doing is telling the box what to look at first......and it should be the CD(or cd/dvd) drive.....
Make sure your windows CD is in the drive and it will all kick off nicely...again, follow your nose....you will have to hit F8 to agree to the license at some point, you'll have to enter the serial number, and set the time and so on......
Don't go for the repair option, go for the fresh install....take all the default options...but do go for NTFS file system rather than FAT32..it's quicker
It'll take about 35 mins start to finish, but it's fairly painless.....
About to send you PM with my moby number if it all goes tits up......it ain't as bad as it sounds though once you've worked out how to change the boot sequence to CD first
Good Luck
