Install from CD within Windows

[Neal Lavon]

I am having huge BIOS problems and at the moment, am not able to boot
from my CD-ROM. I want to re-install Windows on its current partition.
I hope to re-format and reinstall. But can I run the installer on the
CD from within Windows without having the ability to boot from the CD?

Thanks for any help.

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, MD
USA

 

[WM]

No - if you cannot boot from CD, your best option is to obtain the boot
floppies from Microsoft (they are available for download), which will
kick-start setup off the CD.

 

[Guest]

I had an old set of Windows XP diskettes I made from my office computer. I
stuck them in my machine at home (Windows XP Pro) and kept getting error
messages about 16-bit MS-DOS applications that shouldn't be run. I guess they
should be run instead at bootup with the floppy drive chosen as first in the
boot device priority?

Thanksk for the reply.

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, MD
USA

 

[WM]

Correct.

I had an old set of Windows XP diskettes I made from my office computer. I
stuck them in my machine at home (Windows XP Pro) and kept getting error
messages about 16-bit MS-DOS applications that shouldn't be run. I guess
they
should be run instead at bootup with the floppy drive chosen as first in
the
boot device priority?

Thanksk for the reply.

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, MD
USA

 

[Guest]

Wonder of wonders! I ended up recabling my two opitcal drives and swapping
their locations in the ATX case. I nearly fell over from shock when I slipped
a CD into the CD-ROM and I got the dialog box asking me if I wanted to open
the folders within Explorer or play the media files! Glory be! I'm back in
operation.

I was also able to boot from the CD (though not without some poking around).
The IDE scan done by the BIOS listed the two optical drives plus the phrase,
"bootable CD-ROM was found". It then proceeded to boot into Windows as
normal. However, I loaded the XP install disc and then hit F8 at the
motherboard logo, and got a prompt to boot via the optical drive. It booted
into Setup but Setup didn't like my hard drives and hinted I may have a virus.

I am cleaning up drives and deleted a few virus files so hopefully the next
time, it will be smooth sailing. Thanks for the post. Life is good
again...digital wise at least.

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, MD
USA

 

[Michael Hale]

im not sure this will help but you can look in your motherboard manual and
look for a key to reset all your BIOS settings to factory default. you will
have to hit the key(s) when you first boot up your computer. After that is
done format and reinstall windows xp.