Need help before installing Windows XP

[weirdichi]

I'm going to reformat and do a clean install of XP Pro on my system. A friend told me that I can just install from the CD without a bootup disk. But, another friend told me that I need to have a CDRom that supports that function. I am thinking now that I might have to do bootup disks, seeing as how my CDRom is an older model Goldstar. The friend that said I could do a CD install said if I do a bootup disk install, I need 4 disks to make a correct bootup disk. I made a bootup disk from a friend's XP laptop, but it was only 1 disk (I went to the A: drive and then formatted it as a system disk). What do I do? I wanna make absolute sure of everything before I install it. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Here are the main components on my system:
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Abit BE6 II
P3 700
512MB PC133 SDRam
6gb Maxtor 5400 rpm HD (partitioned into two 3gb sections)

 

[IamDavid]

Your system will boot to cd. To try it out just put the cd in the drive and boot up the PC. Make sure the first boot device in the BIOS is the CDROM.

 

[weirdichi]

Thanks.. I'll give it a try.