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Trying to clean install XP SP2 on Acer laptop w/ Vista. Help please.

1K views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  Rich-M 
#1 ·
New to the forums. First time poster. Thanks in advance for the help.

So I searched through the old posts and found many topics related to my issue but I did not find one that directly spelled out my problem nor gave an answer that I could use. I also searched the net for as much info I could find but still no success in finding the answer to my problem.

FYI: I have experience with clean installs. I have completed 4 previous to this one.

So I have this Acer laptop that has Vista installed currently. I have 'full, authentic version' of Windows XP SP2 that I am using to perform a clean install (note: I have used this CD for 2 previous clean installs)-
After booting to CD and getting through the setting up files portion of the process I come to the 'Welcome to Setup' screen- I press ENTER to set up Windows XP- I press F8 to accept the terms- this begins the trouble!
I get a blue screen that says:

'Setup cannot find a previous version of Windows installed on your computer. To continue, Setup needs to verify that you qualify to use this upgrade product.' It also says 'Please insert one of the following Windows product CDs into the CD-ROM drive: etc, etc, etc. At this point I have the XP CD in the drive so I press ENTER- I then get a message that says 'Setup could not read the CD you inserted, or the CD is not a valid Windows CD'.

Like I said previously I have used this CD twice before and it has always been kept in a safe place, the disk is like new. I might think that maybe there's a problem with Microsoft's coveted multiple usage and activation rule but I don't even get it installed so I don't even get to the activation part. Would it not still install EVEN if for some reason I could not get it registered, or activated with Microsoft later? I've known people who have used the same disks multiple, multiple times so I don't think that's the issue. I don't have much of a problem going to Office Depot and purchasing a new copy of XP or even Windows 7 but for some reason I feel I might just still have the same issue.

Any ideas or suggestions would be grateful!!!

Thanks again
 
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#13 ·
It is indeed the full version of XP. I just figured the problem had something to do with moving from Vista down to XP. I have not had much experience with a Vista machine. It does seem strange though. Not to mention I've used this very same CD for 2 other clean installs previously without a single problem; however they were running XP before the reformat.

Does anyone know if the Windows 7 upgrade version can be used for clean installs? I seem to be getting conflicting reports.
 
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