Hi, I have an old Gateway 2000 tower given to me by a family member. They tried to upgrade with windows xp but didin't have the proper product key for it. I would like to know how I remove that xp so I can install xp that I have ? I can only get the thing to start in safe mode because the windows version needs to be redgistered. When I put my xp disk in and try to install it I get a message saying that the installed version is newer then the one I try to load. And that theold one needs to be removed first. But dosen't give any steps on doing that . Any suggestions .

Did you try just using the KEY from the copy you have?

Yeah it tells me incorrect product code

Do you mind wiping it clean? (meaning erase everything?)

If so,

Boot to the XP disc you have. (you need to go into the bios to change the boot order to be the CD first)
It will load up the xp install.. select new installation.
Delete the partitions...
Create new partition...
Then proceed with the install.

Let me know if you need more info

You need to boot to the CD you have and do a Clean install. If the product code you have is currently installed on an other PC then what you are doing is illegal. If it came with another CD, it may also be illegal.

No its not installed already I bought it to upgrade a different PC then the motherboard fried