a friend of mine was given a pc that had a pirate copy of win 2000 badly installed, and every time it is turned on it tries to compleat the installation of win 2000 but comes up with an error saying reg query valu ex invalid data (type=1) or pid has invalid lengh (lengh=8) then the computer reboots and tries to compleat the installation with the same problem. i cant get the mdos prompt as it still tries to compleat the inslation and it will not start the original win millennium os. so its stuck in a loop that i can't break. i have purchased a brand new copy of xp with the hope that it would start the xp installation instead of trying to compleat the win 2000 instlation without success. i know that the bloke that tried to install 2000 put the files onto the harddrive and changed the pid number to bypass the registration prosess and partitioned the harddrive. please can anybody help me
You need to start the system Bios and re-configure the boot sequence. Have your system boot from the optical drive FIRST. Put XP disc in that optical drive and XP installation should begin. the first step to XP installation will be wiping anything on hard drive and you should then be in business. Let me know if this works
ya like he said wait till it askes you if you want to delete the partition and reform ..do not choose quick when reforming...this will distroy all files and not just their addresses
worked like a charm. had no problems installing xp after following the advice from you both. many many thanks to both of you. cheers
