I thought you could run a fresh install from the Windows XP "upgrade" CD??

[toadstool]

Well, I finally decided to get XP last night, however I was disappointed that it would not run from a freshly formatted disk. So, either I didn't do something right, or when I posted a message on the Anandtech Forums about a month ago, the 2-3 people that responded misunderstood my question.

I had asked at the time, if I could install the "upgrade" cd , the way i could my "Windows 98 upgrade" CD. In other words, use a "boot disk" then type the words "setup". With Windows 98, even though I only had the "upgrade " version, it would start up, then ask me for evidence of prior Microsoft ownership. I then would type E:.....for my other cdrom drive, and it would see my Windows 95 cd, and I could install windows 98, without ever having Windows 95 installed.


Well, I tried the same thing with my XP upgrade, and it said........." Can not run in DOS mode".


I could not get it to do what the Win 98 cd would.

I had to go back, reinstall a very basic install of win 98, then run the XP cd from there.

So, basically, I'm asking again. Is it possible to do a fresh install directly from a "formatted " disk?


So, was I misinformed.....(could be that i didn't ask my question clearly too)...........and you CAN NOT run the XP upgrade from a clean format?


Also, one more question, when I was installing , the computer said it could not read a file correctly, I pressed "enter" a few time to "retry" the file. It read it, and coninued installing. This happened with about 3 files when I was installing. The install interrupted, and I had to prompt it several times to retry to read the cd.

Finally everything installed , and I seem to be running ok, but now I'm wondering if the disk is bad.

Has that happened to anyone else while installing? And if I tried to "return" this copy to get another one, would a store (i bought it from Wal Mart) give me a replacement.............seeing as how each copy needs to be activated???


Thanks

 

[yomega]

If you want to do a fresh install of XP you need to boot off of the cd.

To do this you need to go into your BIOS and change the boot order to go to the cd first. Then put in the CD and restart.

hope this helps

 

[bozo1]

yomega is right - boot off the CD. If you need to install from DOS, run WINNT from the \i386 directory. Since setup.exe is a Windows program, it "can not run in DOS mode" as you found out.

 

[toadstool]

And you can do that off an "upgrade" version of XP???

 

[bozo1]

yes

 

[toadstool]

Ok. I just looked at some other threads in the "hot deals" forum, and they were talking about what you both just confirmed.


My next question is then.......................



If i want to reformat, are all the tools available to do this on the "XP upgrade" CD? Are the programs to delete my partition, create a new one, and reformat ALL on the CD???


Or do i still need to use my Win 98 "start up" disk?? ..and run "FDISK"......format...etc....??


Thanks.




(and ....if anyone has response to whether my CD sounds as if it's damaged (read first post) and if it can be replaced.....I'd like to know too.)

 

[bozo1]

Boot off of the CD. There is a place in the install that will let you do all the partitioning you want.

 

[toadstool]

Thanks for the help

 

[Max Power]

I was also looking for an answer to this, thanks!