install XP Home upgrade on new drive

[Tom]

I need to install XP Home (upgrade version) on a new
formatted drive (master), and I would like to know how I
would get the CD drive operational so I can install it
using the XP home upgrade CD. Win 98 used a DOS program
called MSCDEX.exe to activate the CD drive, but given that
XP doesn't have "true DOS", I'm not sure how to load XP
from scratch.

Also, since I have the upgrade version and am loading to a
new drive, will it require me to re-install all of Win98
or just insert the original CD/disks?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

The XP CD is bootable, you just need to be sure your system is set to boot
from the CD-ROM drive. To make sure, check your system BIOS. When the
system boots, the first screen usually has an instruction for getting into
"Setup" or something similar by depressing the Delete key or some other key
on the keyboard. When you see this, do so, then navigate around to the boot
sequence and be sure the CD-ROM drive is first in line in the boot sequence.

As to your second question, you don't need to install Windows 98. The
upgrade setup will ask you to insert the media from your previous operating
system at some point during setup for varification and then it will continue
with XP setup. You can perform all functions, deleting and creating
partitions, formatting, etc. during XP setup as follows:

Boot with the XP CD in the drive. When you see the message on the boot
screen to "Press any key in order to boot from the CD," do so.

After loading drivers and files, you should be taken to a screen with
the following:

To Setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To Repair a Windows XP Installation using Recovery Console press R.
To Quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

In your case, press ENTER.

Agree to the License agreement by pressing F8.

You will then be taken to a screen with two options.

To repair the selected Windows XP installation press R.
To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing,
press ESC.

This will bring you to a partition map where you
can delete, create and format partitions.
Select the drive you wish to format, delete the partition, then create a new
partition, format as desired and continue with XP installation.