I am reverting an old Del XPS T750r from Windows XP back to Windows 2000 in order to run my favorite printer, a reliable HP 1175Cse. (There is no HP-supported XP driver for that printer and I now have a new Dell Studio XPS and printer as my main system- WHEW!)

Anyway, using a Win 98 SE boot disk I successfully reformatted the HD and then loaded that OS. From there, I tried to upgrade to 2000 using a legitimate 2000 Pro upgrade CD and would get 2 message boxes; the one in the rear contained the "Install Windows 2000", "Install Add-on components", etc. buttons. The msg box in front said 'This CD-ROM contains a newer version of Windows than the one you are presently using. Would you like to upgrade to Windows 2000?'

When I click 'Yes' both message boxes disappear!!! If I click 'No', the front box disappears, the second box remains, but the 'Install Windows 2000" button is disabled. However, the 'Browse This CD' button does work.

Specs: Intel x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1; 256 Mb RAM; Win 98 SE; 32 Gb hardrive; CD-RW; DVD-ROM; Zip-250; Floppy drive.There is no need to install Win98 1ST...
Format the drive again and go straight to the Win2K install...
When prompted for the upgrade put in the Win98 CD for verification and the install will continue.Did that and I got stopped again.

On blue screen background I received this message:

'Setup cannot access the CD containing the Windows 2000 installation files.
To retry, press ENTER. If you are not successful after several tries, quit Setup. then, to restart Septup, copy the Windows 2000 installation files to your hard drive.' >> This "solution" makes no sense to me whatsoever!!!

Now what? :-)You may have a bad CD drive...
DLoad a Win2K boot image from bootdisk.com and unzip it to a floppy and try again...I could read the contents of the CD just fine (prior to HD reformat and REMOVAL of Win98 OS).
In fact, I made Win 2000 boot floppy disks from my Win 2000 CD, disks that executed Windows 2000 Setup correctly.
Following the floppy boot's directions I eventually loaded the Win 2000 CD and then hit F8 to AGREE (with Win 2000 Licensing Agreement).

It asked for the legal OS copy (I loaded win 98 CD). It responded, 'To set up Windows 2000 on the selected item (C: FAT32), press ENTER.'

It responded 'Insert the CD labeled: Windows 2000 Professional CD-ROM.

I complied, hit return and it examined the C: drive. Then it gave me the same bad news -- "Setup cannot access the CD ...

that and was immediately directed to load the Win 2000 disk. Same result.Hate to have to ask but where is this Win2K CD from ? ?Our corporate systems administrator's archive. He has all legit stuff. I will get new copy tomorrow and also have him create a bootable version. Thanks for trying to solve what seemed to be an easy problem - but I won't let Microsoft win! Even if I have to bloody my knuckles!!! :-)
It may in fact be a bad image file/CD...Best of Luck with the new one and post back if you still have issues...Will do!