Computer will not boot from Windows XP OS CD

[ketara]

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a dance pad, but discovered that ti was only compatible with Windows XP. As I had a spare hard-drive lying around, I decided that I'd just buy a copy of XP to run on it for that purpose. I bought it from here:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252013013653?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

and the disc arrived today. I disconnected my normal hard-drive (with Windows 7 on), and connected the one I planned to reformat and put Windows XP on into the machine in it's place. But despite having inserted the CD, and made the cd/dvd drive the primary boot device in the BIOS, I can't seem to boot from the CD. I tried inserting my windows 7 disc as a test, and it boots just fine to the installation process from that, so there's no issue with the reader itself or it's connection to the machine. But when I select to boot from the XP disc, the screen just goes blank and nothing happens. No options or indication that anything's happening.

I've looked at the disc in another machine, and there are suitably titled programs on the disc for xp installation. So knowing that the reader works, and the disc seems to be legit, I'm stumped. Any ideas, anybody?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Since the Windows 7 disc boots okay, that proves your system isn't to blame. My guess is the XP disc you bought is a home-made copy (suitably labelled to look like an original Microsoft one) and the person who made it didn't make it bootable, he/she probably just copied files and folders over from a genuine disc (and you can't make a disc bootable simply by doing that).

Could have been a genuine error (eg lack of knowledge about copying bootable discs in the proper manner), or you may have been deliberately ripped off.

 

[Math Geek]

sounds about right to me as well. you can try to download another copy of xp if you wish. so long as you have a key that works it does not matter how you get the disk. that's simply installer files. there should be a ton of places to grab a copy online. i never had a problem getting one when i needed one.

it's clear you can boot from a cd so it has to be the disk itself with the problem like phillip said.