My Pc Won't Start

[tyler_03_25]

right i had a wikedpc running theni installed sonys sonic stage then it said restart so i did.when i restarted it wouldnt load up n it gave me like four options.safe mode safe mode with network last used successfull settings and start normally.iv tried all of them but then the pc just starts..i then got a boot disc off my mate n tried that..it worked then when i went to log in it said somthing is blocking my licence code from getting read..so i got my old windows 98 reload disc n going to install that then i didnt relise it was scratch and it got a quater of the way of deleting my stuff then stoped..so now it just says..INVALID SYSTEM DISC, REPLACE DISC THEN PRESS ANY KEY..but it hasnt got a disc in then when i press any key it just says the same..PLEASE HELP ME!

[DMR]

... iv tried all of them but then the pc just starts

It does start? That seems to be what you're trying to say; can you be more clear/specific?

it got a quater of the way of deleting my stuff then stoped

Uh-oh. Sounds like an aborted installation, which is not a Good Thing. Do you have data on the drive that you want to save? If so, you might want to get that data off the drive before going any further- if you end up having to reformat the drive you're going to loose that data. If possible, install the drive as a slave drive in another computer and see if you can at least access that way.

now it just says..INVALID SYSTEM DISC, REPLACE DISC THEN PRESS ANY KEY..but it hasnt got a disc in then when i press any key it just says the same..PLEASE HELP ME!

The "disc" the error is refering to is the hard drive- the system isn't recognising the hard drive as a bootable device any more (probably due to the aborted reinstallation attempt).

Question- Since you mentioned using a "Windows 98 reload" disk, why have you posted this question in the Win 2000/XP forum? If you had 2000 or XP on the system originally, and then tried some sort of repair/reinstall with the 98 disk, you've probably caused more problems than you originally had.

[tyler_03_25]

oh yes sorry when i tried the options it restarted not started...no i dont really care about the stuff on there all i want to do now is just do a clean installation of windows xp professional but how do i do that???

[DMR]

Oh, OK-

if you just want to do a full reinstall of XP, you should be able to do that by booting from the XP install disk and starting the install process.

If it detects your current (although "broken") XP install, you should have at least 2 options: you can either choose to have the installer automatically try to repair your current installation on the hard drive, or have it do a fresh/clean install. The later will erase what data you currently have, but you've already said that's not really an issue..

[dlh6213]

Here's a link to complete, detailed instructions:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread6632.html