Can boot hiren but not xp cd

[crazycat2]

I have dell 240 which is really old. I just got it as a gift from my boss and want to format it for he gave me an empty hdd. Now, it can start from hiren or UBCD but not from xp,windows 7 or windows vista installation cds. i just don't get it all.

I am thinking if it is related with the dell cds which I don't have. I use a generic xp installation cd and never had a problem with it.

I tried sp 1, sp2 and sp3 xp but nothing. Any ideaz?

 

[AntiZig]

might be some type of BIOS lock that it's looking only for a particular CD

or you are using generic OS installation CDs meant for another computer, the hardware is not recognized and it doesn't want to install

other than that I have no idea why it would be misbehaving

 

[ksiemb]

I have dell 240 which is really old. I just got it as a gift from my boss and want to format it for he gave me an empty hdd. Now, it can start from hiren or UBCD but not from xp,windows 7 or windows vista installation cds. i just don't get it all.

I am thinking if it is related with the dell cds which I don't have. I use a generic xp installation cd and never had a problem with it.

I tried sp 1, sp2 and sp3 xp but nothing. Any ideaz?

I ran into a similar situation with a business workstation but could not do anything until I deleted HD partitions.