I need help with a computer which I plan to use in my cnc effort on a bench type mill. It is a proliant server number 1600 (compaq) and it is in great shape. My place of employment just converted to a new type of server and I caaptured the spoils. Unfortunately, I connot get the thing to respond to my commands in that it just keeps wanting to be a server for the plant.
I want to reformat the harddrive to xp home and use it for my cnc applications. Does anyone have any idea how to make this thing into a normal PC. Dummy at large.
billyjack
:p

Try puting your XP CD in and turning it on. You may get an option to reformat it.

At one time on power up you could hit the F2 key and get into their bios. That would allow you to partition your hard drive. I believe most now have all those features in the systems Utility CD.

When the computer first boots, look for some instructions to enter the BIOS. It may be something like Delete, F10, or F1. In the BIOS, look for the boot order and change it to boot of the CD Drive. Put your XP installation disk in the drive, save the BIOS, exit and reboot. Go through the XP installation and when it asks you about hard drive partitioning, delete all existing ones, and create a new one with a maiximum size. The rest of the XP installation is fairly straightforward. If you dont have an XP disk, I suggest buying an OEM version from a place like Newegg.

Normally these old proliants have a small utilities partion on the HD.

This page should help
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Resource.jsp?locale=en_US&taskId=115&prodSeriesId=254906&prodTypeId=15351

DieGuy...that's like a 'black hole' can you pin it down a little further for him?