[undrscore]

I was given a Dell Inspiron (6000 series I believe) and for some reason was unable to install XP on it. My more computer savvy friend gave it a try but to no avail. I figured, well, if is this computer completely unable to install any OS? or is it just XP?
I went ahead and installed Ubuntu and it workede great. Now for some of you techies you may think that now it is an awesome computer. But I really want to install XP back on the machine because I am not a programmer. Coding and myself don't seem to play nice together. I'm a designer. Math hurts...unless i use it typographically.
Anyway, Ubuntu does not run .exe files natively.
I wanted to access the system's BIOS to see if I could potentially wipe the system from there, but there is a password protect and I don't have a password for it. My father (who gave me the laptop) doesn't have a password either. He had it wiped clean because he got a bad virus or trojan and because it was taking too long to fix at the store (GeekSquad I believe) he bought a MacBook Pro.
[That's when he ordered it to be wiped clean and when he gave it to me since he replaced his laptop.]
I have attempted password like admin, password, *pressing enter with nothing typed* , and others I can't remember.
I even read somewhere that if you remove the battery for a select period of time and put it back in, it would reset the entire system, so I did just that. Took it all apart, got lazy, didn't put it back together for about a week, then put it all together again (pretty good job if I say so myself!).
Still- no cigar.
Here I am now asking the league of geeky minds for help! Please help a fellow geek get XP up and running again!

[TerryNet]

Since you installed Ubuntu I assume that you can boot from the optical drive. Right?

This originally came with XP pre-installed, and you are working with the accompanying XP CD, right?

What happens when you boot the XP CD? Ideally you would delete all the partitions, create a new one (or more if desired) and format it NTFS and then install.

[undrscore]

Thanks for the quick response.
Unfortunately when I attempt to boot from the CD/Install Disc it goes to a black screen with a white blinking underscore, or it will blackout until it loads a screen asking me which ubuntu it wants me to load up (safe mode, regular, etc.)
No dice.
And on top, i don't have the original install disc. Just a copy of one [which should work just as fine].

[TerryNet]

I've noticed, and I think even on the same PC, that a Linux install CD will just boot, but an XP CD will pause for 2 or 3 seconds to see if you can "hit any key to boot from CD" during that small window. From your description it sounds like you may be missing, or not even seeing, that prompt. Try tapping the "any" key as soon as you hear the CD being accessed.

Secondly, try booting the CD on another computer just to make sure it really does boot.

[undrscore]

I can boot from CD, its just that, right after i click "Boot from CD" the laptop switches off the select which boot-up screen to a blank screen, and then the Ubuntu start-up options kick in. So, it just won't start up the disc.

[TerryNet]

That probably means the CD is not being seen as a bootable disk. Could be a problem with the CD or the CD and the optical drive not playing nice together. Try booting the CD in another computer--you needn't do anything, just see if it will actually start to boot.

[undrscore]

The cd actually does work, i have tried it in another system to make sure, tis why i am so puzzled!

[DVOM]

I'm not sure if an XP CD can "see" a ext4 formatted partition. You might have to boot to an Ubuntu CD and format the partition to NTFS with GParted.

Then give the XP CD another try.