HELP! I can't install winXP Pro on a blank disk!!! (no previous OS)

[NeoVibe]

hi

my problem is that I can't (/don't know) install winXP pro on a HD without any OS installed!! The CD I have doesn't work as a boot CD and even if I use a regular startup disk (DOS) I can't get the SETUP.EXE to run under DOS!!! What's missing? What am I doing wrong?

please help

thanks for anything!!

 

[GAZZA]

It can be done simple enough if you have some basic dos commands in hand.

Insert your boot disk and boot , select cdrom support if the option is available.

Change your A: prompt to the drive letter of your cdrom with the XP disk .

Then change DIR to I386 and then type WINNT and away you go .

Even if you haven't formatted your hard drive XP can do it for you in the setup process.

 

[NeoVibe]

thank you VERY much!!!

 

[corkyg]

Have you properly prepared the hard disk with FDISK, set an active partition, and formatted it? WinXP's Setup doesn't do all that- It has to be done first. Then you have to make your CD ROM drive bootable. That is done in BIOS CMOS settings. If that can't be done, you need to get hold of an old Windows 98 Emergency Boot disk with CD ROM support and go from there.

 

[GAZZA]

Have you properly prepared the hard disk with FDISK, set an active partition, and formatted it? WinXP's Setup doesn't do all that

The only thing that XP setup does not do is set the partition to active , as regards formatting and partitioning it works fine as long as you want NTFS or FAT as these are the only choices available to you , if you want FAT32 then use a DOS boot disk .