this is correct

i used a win98 bootfloppy on the dell a drive and used the command format

Fdisk shows only 1 active partition on C:

I used grub4dos to make the usb stick bootable. Another usb stick made bootable by pe2usb. Both give the BSOD 7B

when i used the command format c:/s and i boot the pc without USB or Floppy the computer end up with dosscreen C:\ So in my knowlegde the HDD is seen and functions.

Last but not least: i'm not going to hate you, because i understand why it is important for you to know what i did or did not do.

Okay, now trust me on this next bit, look at my .pdf tutorial and do exactly as it shows, stage for stage. Also your usb drive, put it into a working comp and use the hp format utility to format it. Also what size is your usb stick. a max of just under 2 gigs will be nice but not a problem. Disregard all errors to date and now do the install exactly as i set out stage for stage. Don't bother with the dos command to make the directory as you know this part already. come back here when you get to the stage only of your usb stick having been sucessfully formatted with the HP formatting utility. If i never put the hp format utility on the server you can google it. You are ready to install, but it will take some patience and if it goes wrong, this is not a problem as you just do it again, some people have taken a few attempts.
Also I need to know you have a genuine and real hologram XP cd in front of you.
You also have to tell your bios to disarm the floppy, best if you can actaully pull the floppy ide cable from the motherboard to make the bios forget it and not give you grief. I am going to get you to the stage of your usb stick holding the entire win xp Cd. I also will take you through dell and bios problem if we have to but I don't think this will happen.
1. format the usb pen drive with hp format utility.
2. disconnect and disable the floppy from the dell system you are going to install the new os onto.
3. have genuine only xp cd in fromt of you
download the three files and place them only on your c: drive of the other computer which has a cd rom and is going to be used to copy the files from the CD to your peb-drive.(extract them as I have zipped them) You will have three folders.
Come back here when this is done.

it gets tricky booting to the usb but we will come to this when your ready as the bios will try to boot to the c: without help from you but i'll take you through it.

I've also used another comp with networking to install os's but this is not needed as you will be fine with the USB pendrive and i've also installed an os over three days with only floppy 1.44 discs but lets not go down this road. I don't suppose you are in London by any chance?

Not Londen Netherlands

both usb sticks are 4 GB.

i made an image CD was used as a frisbee by my children.

wil follow the steps, gonna let you know.

Okay, I wish you luck, and any difference from the tutorial and stop and let me know, it has to be word and picture identical all the way

you say i have to format the disk using hp but your pdf says format with pe2usb.

Took a while for this reply, have to sleep at times, an annoying habit I know.
You will be fine with what I said in the tutorial, my mind may have wandered on this, so many types of drives and USB HDD's I use to do this.
So allow the PeToUSB to format your drive, this is 100% okay and don't bother with the HP format utility.

It is annoying because sometimes we wish the things to be solved earlier or yesterday.

Anyway i've formatted the usb stick, have my original image of the disk and the three files and the floppy drive disconnected.

Okay, follow the instructions, not hard, just takes a while, i'm out for the day so good luck. just remember to boot to the USB drive when you have to re-boot after the install starts. The usb drive is just like the cd so when you are installing remember to format the drive when windows asks on the c: drive as ntfs and only use quick format then the file copying will begin. only when the desktop appears do you then allow the boot from the hard-drive, until then always boot to the usb drive. keep the usb stick in all the way. all the best. I think it needs to boot to it about three times.

I tried it, but the computer gives me again the BSOD 7B. The usb stick is booting, i even tried the ultimate boot CD on usb which also boot from the USB stick and works.

Why does the installation of xp doesnot work and doe i receive this BSOD all the time?

just got home, at what point does the BSOD come on you? Do you get anywhere with the USB on the start of installation?

Also did you get the XP CD onto the pen drive/USB?
You may also need to copy a driver onto floppy to get it to install along with the installation. You have another comp there that you used to copy the files to the usb drive, so you need to take the HDD out of the dell and connect it to your working pc as a slave, then look at the HDD as a slave and see what it shows. It might be the Dell needs needs a driver. Also you can re-set the BIOS of the Dell by removing the battery for a bit then putting it back in. This will clear the CMOS held in the Dells ROM chip. Then on re-boot enter the Dell configuration and re-configure the motherboard. get back when all this checks out. If the PC's in front of me all this I do in minutes as process of elimination but don't give up.

the BSOD arrives after setup loads fat and NFTS system them the splashscreen (black) comes up which should display the logo of winxp but we don't reach that point. before that we get the BSOD. I notice that the system is being checked, keyboard lights flicker HDD lights flicker and the at one time usb light flickers and after a short whil the BSOD comes up.

i did remove the battery already. Did not work. I wil try the suggestion with the other computer tomorrow.

I don't give up the pc's should be ones for my kids.

thx have a good sleep and i will let you know tomorrow

You are using an original XP hologram CD? Not an image?

i already mentioned that i made an image of my original hologrammed windows CD. The CD itself doesn't work anymore. (i previous succesfully installed a laptop with this image)

Do you think that causes the BSOD?

Only problems people have, myself included as I said in the tutorial is this, and yes, I also have installed loads of CD Images to HDD's but the way this is done with the little dos programs, it throws error messages and never seems to work. You can install the OS by actually using the HDD in your working comp and treat it like a new hard-drive,(disconnect the one in just now), then take it out after this and put it back in the dell, it will scream for drivers but normally works and you can hook to the net and update the drivers. This is another way we install OS's but again not always sucessful.

I had een old computer, which works fine, which should do the benchmark. However it had een old BIOS and didnot recognised the usb stick. I downloaded the update usb from the manufactor and performed the update. During this proces the BIOS was cleared and the rewrite begon. then Murphy came along and the update hangs. Now this computer isn't responding to anything.

i'm trying to install via CD in your alternative method

I remember years ago when I started out back in the days of only dos and no GUI the nightmares I used to have as my teachers back then were like myself and it was all new territory to us so the problems I encountered were immese. Nowadays I find so many ways round systems I don't think about it, but I never tried to do it over the net in a forum.
You can clear the CMOS by either switching the CMOS jumper or sometimes it's just a little two points of solder you short out which will have the words Clear CMOS or just CMOS where present day they are an actual jumper switch.
I'm glad you are not giving up as over the years I learnt there is more ways to skin a cat than the prefered way.
Another thing I'm going to throw into the equation is DELL are notorius for building systems that have hidden parts with data in them, or other times I've removed pci slot cards and the system has crashed or refused to boot.
As to the microsoft CD codes I'll make them available one day. The problem with the original is it writes a file on installation that then gets checked against the code and this is not entered when a copy or image is taken simply because the person doesn't know they have to name the CD copy with the exact code which then tells the installation file the CD is original

The alternative method worked. As soon the installation via CD with the dell HDD installed in the other computer i shut down and put the HDD back in the dell pc. I'm going to download the actual drivers for the GX260 put them on usb and install them. Will let you know.

i will try to rewrite the BIOS with an EPROM programmer. This will take a while because i have to get my programmer back.

The the usb installation bothers me and is an item i would like to solve.

I have 3 pc's to go

result of finished pc tomorrow evening