Windows 7: Formatted hdd, tried to instal win xp, errors out. Help.

So a friend of mine had to format his hdd and hes having some issues, when he tries to install winxp he gets an error: "Setup cannot install cmnicfg.xml" and it says "this happens when trying to install over a newer copy of windows"



How could he be trying to install over a newer copy of windows when the hdd was formatted and was wiped clean? Is it something wrong with the boot sector? Any idea how he can fix this?

funky, indeed.

You may try this method to clean up the HDD :

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Everything all started when he installed the drivers for his new videocard, which is the same one I have a gigabyte geforce 560 1gb, he used the offical ones from the nvidia site, at first his pc was just going not responding on boot up and he couldn't figure out how to fix it, it worked fine when he ran it in safe mode, but usually when he rebooted into normal windwos it'd lock up, didn't always but sometimes.

Try using "DBAN" About DBAN | Darik's Boot And Nuke rather than just formating it. Also you didnt say what version of Windows was on before? When some computers are shipped with Windows 7 and back dated to XP you have to change the sata operation in the BIOS from 'AHCI' To 'ATA'.

Hope this helps you in some way.

Thanks Tom

I hope it will do the trick