After struggling with a virus-infected Windows Me computer
for several months, in a fit of rage I wiped the
hd..."format c:" from the floppy emergency disk. Went to
Wal-Mart & bought Windows XP, but trying to install gives
the message "can't run setup from DOS". Now what?
I'd sure appreciate any advice.
The Windows XP install media is not designed to be installed from DOS
using a DOS setup floppy.
To install it,
1) In your BIOS setup, set the CD drive to be the first boot device.
If your motherboard does not allow booting from CD, you probably
shouldn't be trying to install XP on your machine. XP requires (at
minimum) a 233mhZ Pentium II processor and 64mb ram. Having used XP
since Beta 2, I suggest that you not use less than 256mb of ram and a
500mhZ Pentium III processor for XP. You will also need a minimum of
1.5 gig of free HD space just to install the OS. I suggest at least
10gig free space to install and run XP. Even better, get an 80gig HD.
They're cheap, and you will fill it pretty fast if you do a lot of
multimedia-intense computing. Make sure your system partition is at
least 10gig.
2) Place the XP install disk in the drive
3) Save your settings!!!
4) Reboot
6) Immediately after the POST, you will see a message such as "Press
any key to boot from CD". Immediately press a key, such as <Enter>.
This message will only be up a few (maybe 5 or 6) seconds. If you
don't get it then, reboot again, until you do get it. Some machines
will just immediately boot to the CD if there is a bootable CD in the
drive (such as the XP install disk), and you will see no message in
that case.
The XP installer will start.
During the install, you will be asked if you want to install "Clean"
(a new copy on a freshly formatted HD) or "Upgrade" (if the media is
an Upgrade or Full Retail copy).
During this process, you will be asked to partition and format. (if
installing "Clean"). Just follow the (pretty clear) instructions on
the screen.
Donald L McDaniel
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