help with clean install of XP

[itchyneebanshee]

Hi,

Recently I had a failed hard drive [ibm] and am going to install a new
Western Digital ATA.
I have a data drive that is FAT32.

I'm probably going to use the 6 disk floppy boot system to install XP,
however..

My question is:

1. If I have a floppy boot disk [western digital utility makes one]
that allows you to shift
to the CDROM, why cant I just put in the XP Cdrom, then proceed with
the installation
and not use the 6 disk floppy system?

2. When the XP installation asks for NTFS or FAT32, will that have any
bearing on the fact
that my data drive is FAT32 and will also be accessed by another drive
that uses WIN98se?
I'm using a drive toggle switch selector that allows me to boot up to
either a drive that has
win98se or one that will have [the newly installed] XP. Technically
this is not a RAID, just
a toggle switch you select at boot up.

3. Does the fact that my gigabyte MB having the Promise ATA133w/RAID
chip
have anything to do with me selecting SCSI or RAID driver during the
XP installation
process? The MB is ACPI compliant. I was a little confused on this
one.

thanks for any help,

itchy

 

[Leonard Grey]

Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

No problem if your system partition is NTFS and your data partition is
FAT32.

 

[Anna]

Hi,

Recently I had a failed hard drive [ibm] and am going to install a new
Western Digital ATA.
I have a data drive that is FAT32.

I'm probably going to use the 6 disk floppy boot system to install XP,
however..

My question is:

1. If I have a floppy boot disk [western digital utility makes one]
that allows you to shift
to the CDROM, why cant I just put in the XP Cdrom, then proceed with
the installation
and not use the 6 disk floppy system?

2. When the XP installation asks for NTFS or FAT32, will that have any
bearing on the fact
that my data drive is FAT32 and will also be accessed by another drive
that uses WIN98se?
I'm using a drive toggle switch selector that allows me to boot up to
either a drive that has
win98se or one that will have [the newly installed] XP. Technically
this is not a RAID, just
a toggle switch you select at boot up.

3. Does the fact that my gigabyte MB having the Promise ATA133w/RAID
chip
have anything to do with me selecting SCSI or RAID driver during the
XP installation
process? The MB is ACPI compliant. I was a little confused on this
one.

thanks for any help,

itchy

itchy...
Well, the first question is why would you be using the XP OS six floppy disk
set to install the OS instead of the XP OS installation CD which you
apparently have?

Obviously when you begin the installation of the XP OS onto your new WD HDD
you will have "deactivated" your "toggle switch selector" so that XP setup
will have no inkling of another OS in the system. So there should be no
problem on that end.

Is there any reason why you would need to install a RAID driver in
connection with your Promise controller? I'm inferring from your post that
you're working (or soon will be working) with three HDDs - the new WD
containing the XP OS, another HDD that contains the Win98 OS, and another
HDD (non-booting) "data drive". Presumably the latter is the one connected
to your Promise controller?

In any event, you're not working with a RAID installation, right? There's a
strong likelihood that the XP OS install will detect the Promise controller
and there will be no need to install an auxiliary driver for that device,
but if it doesn't then you'll install whatever ATA driver is necessary for
that controller.
Anna

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi,

Recently I had a failed hard drive [ibm] and am going to install a new
Western Digital ATA.
I have a data drive that is FAT32.

I'm probably going to use the 6 disk floppy boot system to install XP,

Why? The XP CD is bootable.

however..

My question is:

1. If I have a floppy boot disk [western digital utility makes one]
that allows you to shift
to the CDROM, why cant I just put in the XP Cdrom, then proceed with
the installation
and not use the 6 disk floppy system?

You don't need to use the floppies. The CD should be bootable.

2. When the XP installation asks for NTFS or FAT32, will that have any
bearing on the fact
that my data drive is FAT32 and will also be accessed by another drive
that uses WIN98se?

No. However, you may want to disconnect that second drive for two reasons:

First, for safety, and second, to prevent it from becoming the C drive.

I'm using a drive toggle switch selector that allows me to boot up to
either a drive that has
win98se or one that will have [the newly installed] XP. Technically
this is not a RAID, just
a toggle switch you select at boot up.

You're very right that it isn't technically - or in any other sense - a RAID
setup.

3. Does the fact that my gigabyte MB having the Promise ATA133w/RAID
chip
have anything to do with me selecting SCSI or RAID driver during the
XP installation
process? The MB is ACPI compliant. I was a little confused on this
one.

No. All that matters is that the drive is detected.

You probably don't really want to use RAID features anyway.

HTH
-pk

 

[itchyneebanshee]

Hi,

Recently I had a failed hard drive [ibm] and am going to install a new
Western Digital ATA.
I have a data drive that is FAT32.

I'm probably going to use the 6 disk floppy boot system to install XP,
however..

[...]

itchy...
Well, the first question is why would you be using the XP OS six floppy disk
set to install the OS instead of the XP OS installation CD which you
apparently have?

Because my Cdrom is not bootable, and I haven't checked to see if
the CMOS will let me change the boot sequence yet.
It probably will, I just haven't ever done that before.
However, I did find an article that said if you
just put smartdrv.exe on a win98 startup floppy disk, then booted to
the
floppy & ran smartdrv.exe, then changed to your CDROM with the XP OS
in it,
went to the i386 directory and ran winnt.exe, the XP OS installation
process
would then begin. Has anyone used this method before?


[...]

Is there any reason why you would need to install a RAID driver in
connection with your Promise controller?

[...]

No, I think its safe to assume XP will just go to ACPI detection here.


[...]


I was wondering about if during the XP installation process the CD
asks for
a driver, do those have to be on a floppy disk? Or does it allow you
to change
CDs?

Plus, If I choose to install XP on two of the drives on my 'trios
drive selector',
will there be any problem in me getting both of them activated?

thanks for the help,

itchy

 

[Anna]

Hi,

Recently I had a failed hard drive [ibm] and am going to install a new
Western Digital ATA.
I have a data drive that is FAT32.

I'm probably going to use the 6 disk floppy boot system to install XP,
however..

My question is:

1. If I have a floppy boot disk [western digital utility makes one]
that allows you to shift
to the CDROM, why cant I just put in the XP Cdrom, then proceed with
the installation
and not use the 6 disk floppy system?

2. When the XP installation asks for NTFS or FAT32, will that have any
bearing on the fact
that my data drive is FAT32 and will also be accessed by another drive
that uses WIN98se?
I'm using a drive toggle switch selector that allows me to boot up to
either a drive that has
win98se or one that will have [the newly installed] XP. Technically
this is not a RAID, just
a toggle switch you select at boot up.

3. Does the fact that my gigabyte MB having the Promise ATA133w/RAID
chip
have anything to do with me selecting SCSI or RAID driver during the
XP installation
process? The MB is ACPI compliant. I was a little confused on this
one.

thanks for any help,

itchy

itchy...
Well, the first question is why would you be using the XP OS six floppy
disk set to install the OS instead of the XP OS installation CD which you
apparently have?

Obviously when you begin the installation of the XP OS onto your new WD
HDD you will have "deactivated" your "toggle switch selector" so that XP
setup will have no inkling of another OS in the system. So there should be
no problem on that end.

Is there any reason why you would need to install a RAID driver in
connection with your Promise controller? I'm inferring from your post that
you're working (or soon will be working) with three HDDs - the new WD
containing the XP OS, another HDD that contains the Win98 OS, and another
HDD (non-booting) "data drive". Presumably the latter is the one connected
to your Promise controller?

In any event, you're not working with a RAID installation, right? There's
a strong likelihood that the XP OS install will detect the Promise
controller and there will be no need to install an auxiliary driver for
that device, but if it doesn't then you'll install whatever ATA driver is
necessary for that controller.
Anna

Because my Cdrom is not bootable, and I haven't checked to see if
the CMOS will let me change the boot sequence yet.
(SNIP)

I was wondering about if during the XP installation process the CD
asks for a driver, do those have to be on a floppy disk? Or does it allow
you
to change CDs?

Plus, If I choose to install XP on two of the drives on my 'trios
drive selector', will there be any problem in me getting both of them
activated?

thanks for the help,
itchy


itchy:
I really think you would be wise (if at all possible) to replace your
defective CD-ROM device and purchase a new optical drive (CD/DVD). Online
vendors are selling them in the $20 to $25 range.

Ordinarily the only time there would be a need to install a driver during
the XP OS installation process would be where an auxiliary SATA controller
driver is necessary for the system to detect a SATA HDD. That doesn't seem
to be an issue in your situation.

I've no experience with the Trios drive selector device you're using so I
really can't answer your question. Most of those type of devices pretty much
disappeared from the market some years ago. Removable hard drive devices
(mobile racks) for desktop machines are primarily in use today.
Anna

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hi,

Recently I had a failed hard drive [ibm] and am going to install a new
Western Digital ATA.
I have a data drive that is FAT32.

I'm probably going to use the 6 disk floppy boot system to install XP,
however..

[...]

itchy...
Well, the first question is why would you be using the XP OS six floppy
disk
set to install the OS instead of the XP OS installation CD which you
apparently have?

Because my Cdrom is not bootable, and I haven't checked to see if
the CMOS will let me change the boot sequence yet.
It probably will, I just haven't ever done that before.
However, I did find an article that said if you
just put smartdrv.exe on a win98 startup floppy disk, then booted to
the
floppy & ran smartdrv.exe, then changed to your CDROM with the XP OS
in it,
went to the i386 directory and ran winnt.exe, the XP OS installation
process
would then begin. Has anyone used this method before?


[...]

Is there any reason why you would need to install a RAID driver in
connection with your Promise controller?

[...]

No, I think its safe to assume XP will just go to ACPI detection here.


[...]


I was wondering about if during the XP installation process the CD
asks for
a driver, do those have to be on a floppy disk? Or does it allow you
to change
CDs?

Plus, If I choose to install XP on two of the drives on my 'trios
drive selector',
will there be any problem in me getting both of them activated?

thanks for the help,

itchy


On some systems, F key options are given at the base of the screen as the PC
starts to boot. There may be an F key option shown which can be used to
temporarily change the boot order, maybe F9. Look for something like this.

Failing the above, either continually tap the DEL key, F1, F2 or a
combination of these keys to force the system into BIOS. Then look for the
section where you can change the boot order. You will need to assign the
CD/DVD drive as first boot device. You should then be able to boot from your
XP CD and carry out any operation required to re-install XP.

Using the six XP diskettes is a very clumsy method..