I am running xp home on with an older desktop, I recently wiped all the users and left one with an ADMINISTRATOR password. On a reboot, it asks for the administrator info, then takes me to a screen with xp professional and asks me for a password where the user name is "Owner".  Now I can get into the computer using safe mode and Ive tried to tweak the user settings, but they are only for administrator, not for xp pro.
    To make things worse, I tried to to wipe my HARD drive and start over, Its PROBABLY time for that anyway, When I put in the xp home disk, it starts the process, I accept it and then it tells me it cant read the disk and to put a windows disk in the drive, Ive tried 2 xp home disk and a newer vista disk, trying to wipe the hard drive. My question is... Is there any other way to format my hard drive? my disks arent working.Are you doing it right? Booting from the CDs?

There should be no problem formatting the drive via the Windows Setup.I accept the terms with f8, it acts like it is loading something, and then tells me my disk isnt a windows disk. Ive tried it a number of times, I actually have 2 xp home editions, and a NEW vista disk. I get the same thing with all. Is there not another way to format? maybe with a zip drive?
And where are these Windows CD's from ? ?
It should ask you to wipe/create partititon on bootup...
Some of the Sharpie versions of Windows will skip this important step.