can't reformat

[matchstickman]

Hi everyone.

I need some help. I’ve been trying for the last 7 hours to reformat my computer. I have windows XP media center edition. It didn't come with a restore disk, you're supposed to be able to restore strait from backup files on the computer. I’ve done it once before, so I know that at least some of the time that works. The only problem is, this time, it says that the attempt failed. It doesn’t give me any additional information about it or anything, it just gives me the option of going into the system setting menu or trying to boot again. When I go into the system settings to try and set everything back to factory settings, it tells me that I need an admin password I don't remember creating. I’ve been up and down every help menu I can find on this machine, and I’m out of ideas. If anybody has any suggestions at all, I would really really appreciate it.

Thank you.

[nitroshift]

[...]it tells me that I need an admin password I don't remember creating[...].

Clear CMOS is the key word (aka BIOS clear).