Help installing XP

[damienb]

Ok, so ive used a win98 boot disk. gone into fdisk, deleted partition, created partition, rebooted, formated, rebooted again and now i want to install xp from scratch. i boot to win98 boot disk again with cd-rom support, put the xp disk in then type e: to enter the cd-rom and then type setup.exe. it tells me this program cannot be run in dos mode. ive also tried typing cd i386 and the setup and i get the same. ive tried not booting the win98 boot disk and changing the boot sequence in the bios to cd-rom to boot directly to xp disk, it tells me boot failure. what the hell is going on??? either this disk hasn't been made bootable or im just doing something wrong? someone pls help me!!

Damien

 

[alidabiri]

type winnt.exe or winnt32.exe

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Put the Windows XP disk in your cd-rom. Boot into bios and set the boot priority to cd-rom/hard drive. Save and exit bios.

During bootup you should see the message, "press any key to boot from cd" press any key and follow the onscreen instructions.

Delete any partitions, then create a new partition and format it in the NTFS file system.

During the Windows set up, your computer will reboot. You will again see the message "press any key to boot from cd" DO NOT press any key, otherwise the installation will start again from scratch.

Regards Howard

 

[damienb]

ive now tried booting the win98 disk again and typing winnt.exe and winnt32.exe. tells me bad command. any other ideas???

 

[damienb]

howard hopsinko-
i have already deleted partitions and formated through fdisk on the win98 boot disk. at the moment i have a completely wiped hard disk. i cant seem to boot directly to the xp disk though and i have set the boot sequence correctly. it just tell me boot failure.

damien

 

[howard_hopkinso]

That`s strange.

Are you sure you`ve set the boot priority correctly and saved and exited bios?

Here are complete step by step instructions.

You need to do the following.

1 restart your computer and go to stetup usually by pressing the F2 or delete key.

2 Once you get into setup look for the boot menu and make sure you set it to boot from cd first followed by your hard drive.

3 Put the Windows xp disk into your cd.

4 Now save your settings and exit setup.

5 While your computer is booting you will see a message that says "press any key to boot from cd" press any key.

6 When the welcome to setup screen appears press enter and then press F8 to accept the Microsoft licence agreement.

7 You will be prompted to repair an insallation press the escape key.

8 Now select the partition that you want to reformat and press the D key to delete it you will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the partition.

9 Now press C to create a brand new partition you will be asked what size you want the partition to be in mega bytes. If you just press enter then the partition will be the maximum size that you can have. This is perfectly ok if you don`t want to create multiple partitions.

10 You will now be asked to format the partition select the ntfs file sytem and do a full format.

11 Once the format is complete setup will continue.

Your computer will restart during the remaining setup again you will be asked to press any key to boot from cd DO NOT PRESS ANYTHING. and setup will continue. Once the setup is complete and you are back in Windows remove the Windows cd from your cd drive.

Hope this helps.

Regards Howard

 

[damienb]

yeah ive definately got the sequence correct and as you said and i have definatley saved. but its just says boot failure. probably an idea to bear in mind that this is a copied disk that i bought off ebay. it worked fine when i installed it through windows 98 (previous os). it installed xp fine but it didn't do a complete format in the process. there were some program files still on the gard disk from when windows 98 was the os. thing is, the pc was infected with spyware so i want to make sure everything is removed so ive done it all over again but this time taking a different avenue using the win98 boot disk. maybe the the person who made the disk didnt make it bootable???

 

[howard_hopkinso]

maybe the the person who made the disk didnt make it bootable???

That`s the only thing I can think of that would account for the problem.

I suppose you could download the XP boot floppies from HERE.

Regards Howard

 

[alidabiri]

winnt or winnt32 will not work from c: drive. you have to navigate to d: drive(your cd-rom drive where the xp cd is, and invoke the command there). you don't need to boot from cd, just get there
after going to dos
type on each line and press enter each time (if d: is your cd-rom drive)

d:
winnt32.exe

 

[damienb]

e: is my cd-rom and the winnt32.exe thing really doesn't work man

 

[alidabiri]

those 2 files should be on every xp cd. is this a legit xp cd?

 

[damienb]

right ive used the xp boot disks and now it seems to be working..well so far. its copied all its files over and is now asking me if i want to format again. im confused about what to do as the HD had already been totally formated through fdisk on the win98 boot disk so if i format again wont it wipe off the files it just copied over (10mb worth). there is an option to leave current file system intact with no changes. what should i do?

 

[WinDoWsMoNoPoLy]

Yes it will wipe them. Just select leave as current filesystem and continue with the setup.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

right ive used the xp boot disks and now it seems to be working..well so far. its copied all its files over and is now asking me if i want to format again. im confused about what to do as the HD had already been totally formated through fdisk on the win98 boot disk so if i format again wont it wipe off the files it just copied over (10mb worth). there is an option to leave current file system intact with no changes. what should i do?

Yes you should format again, in the NTFS file system.

Then repeat the process, only without formatting.

Regards Howard

 

[Spike]

just for the record, it's...

e:
cd i386
winnt32.exe

the winnt32 file is in the i386 folder, not the cd root.

 

[alidabiri]

anyway................