"Cannot be run in DOS mode." - Setup.exe for XP

[Gaard]

I actually got around it by installing 98 first. But WTH? I had previously installed XP from the D: prompt (on a brand new drive), why wouldn't it let me last night? My OS was screwed up so I decided to do a clean install (I hadn't activated it yet, so I decided to put a fresh installation on before I activated it). I thre in a 98 boot disk, reformatted the drive, threw in the XP CD, and after changing to D: drive I typed SETUP. That's when I got the 'cannot be run in DOS' message. What'd I do wrong?

 

[TheOmegaCode]

What'd I do wrong?

You formatted and booted off of a win98 boot disk...

 

[tigerwannabe]

you need to go to the i386 directory & run winnt. that will let you install windows xp from a command prompt

 

[Gaard]

Ok, thanks guys. BTW, I could've sworn I did the same thing the first time I (successfully) installed XP. Guess not.

 

[TheOmegaCode]

If you are installing XP, why are you running it on FAT32? Also, if you start the XP install process from "DOS" make sure to run smartdrive.

 

[bacillus]

hmm, why didn't you just boot from the xp cd?

 

[alkemyst]

exactly, set your BIOS to CD boot and boot off the CD...much easier and reliable.

 

[AkumaX]

i think the cleanest way to install xp is to copy the entire i386 dir to harddisk, and use a 98 boot disk w/ smartdrv.exe

then run *:\i386\winnt.exe

can also use an xp boot disk to alleviate the smartdrv.exe problem

 

[alkemyst]

akumka is right, that is alot faster too....just make sure smartdrv gets loaded or you have alot of soda/beer/etc to wait with.