How to install XP to new HD

[Tom Ellison]

Dear Friends:

I have a Dell 600 SC. I've added a second hard drive, and I'd like to
install XP to this and make it the boot drive.

The system does not have a CD/DVD boot capability in the BIOS. If XP came
with a boot floppy, or the ability to create one, this would be a reasonable
route. I haven't had any luck finding that capacity.

I can still boot from the original HD. I'm running on that now. If I
attempt to install XP from CD at this time, it refuses, saying my current
version is newer than the one on the CD. Never mind that I want to install
it to ANOTHER HARD DRIVE. I can update the version later.

So any suggestions?

Tom Ellison

 

[jimbo]

Dear Friends:

I have a Dell 600 SC. I've added a second hard drive, and I'd like to
install XP to this and make it the boot drive.

The system does not have a CD/DVD boot capability in the BIOS. If XP came
with a boot floppy, or the ability to create one, this would be a reasonable
route. I haven't had any luck finding that capacity.

I can still boot from the original HD. I'm running on that now. If I
attempt to install XP from CD at this time, it refuses, saying my current
version is newer than the one on the CD. Never mind that I want to install
it to ANOTHER HARD DRIVE. I can update the version later.

So any suggestions?

Tom Ellison

You could use Norton Ghost to clone your current WinXP hard drive to
the new hard drive. Then put the new hard drive in master position and
boot. You could then format the old hard drive.

Good luck, jimbo

 

[Tom Ellison]

Thanks, but . . .

I don't want to format the old hard drive. I want to have access to the
files on it. It will be fine as my secondary drive.

I do not want a ghost of my existing drive. I want a clean, fresh install.
The old is not in good shape, and I don't want to copy ANY corruption.

So, can XP boot from floppy and install from CD?

Tom Ellison

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Thanks, but . . .

I don't want to format the old hard drive. I want to have access
to the files on it. It will be fine as my secondary drive.

I do not want a ghost of my existing drive. I want a clean, fresh
install. The old is not in good shape, and I don't want to copy ANY
corruption.
So, can XP boot from floppy and install from CD?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

 

[Tom Ellison]

Dear Shenan:

This should be exactly what I need. Thanks very much.

When I buy computers in the future, I'll know to specify they must be able
to boot from CD. The web site states Microsoft will not be providing floppy
boot capability in the future. This computer will be obsolete before its
time!

Tom Ellison

 

[Tom Ellison]

Dear Shenan:

Any help with this?

I created the diskettes and attempted the install. After waiting for all 6
diskettes to load, and selecting the partition to be loaded, I get:

Windows XP Professional Setup
======================

The following value in the .SIF file used by Setup is corrupted or missing.

Value 0 on the line in section [Source Disk Files] with key "SP1.cab."

Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3.

I re-ran it with identical results.

I should explain that the HD is partitioned into 4 drives. They are 2 GB,
2GB, 2GB and 31 GB in size. I did this to provide performance. The first 3
partitions are to contain databases. Doing it as I have done provides
(theoretically) these advantages:

1. The database files, with one per partition, will remain defragmented for
better performance.

2. If you put these partitions at the end of the drive, then you have long
head travel and poor performance. This way, everything is in the first
quarter of so of the HD, with the other 28 GB or so at the end.

So, I'm attempting to load Windows XP to the 31GB partition. The partitions
have been labelled C: E: F: and G: (D: is another HD in the system).

Is it possible for Windows XP to load an boot from whichever partition I
choose? It allows me to choose the partition I desire, but it doesn't then
allow me to use it. Is that the reason for this error, or is there some
other problem.

Thanks very much for your assistance!

Tom Ellison

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Dear Shenan:

Any help with this?

I created the diskettes and attempted the install. After waiting
for all 6 diskettes to load, and selecting the partition to be
loaded, I get:
Windows XP Professional Setup
======================

The following value in the .SIF file used by Setup is corrupted or
missing.
Value 0 on the line in section [Source Disk Files] with key
"SP1.cab."
Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3.

I re-ran it with identical results.

I should explain that the HD is partitioned into 4 drives. They
are 2 GB, 2GB, 2GB and 31 GB in size. I did this to provide
performance. The first 3 partitions are to contain databases. Doing it as
I have done provides (theoretically) these advantages:

1. The database files, with one per partition, will remain
defragmented for better performance.

2. If you put these partitions at the end of the drive, then you
have long head travel and poor performance. This way, everything
is in the first quarter of so of the HD, with the other 28 GB or so
at the end.
So, I'm attempting to load Windows XP to the 31GB partition. The
partitions have been labelled C: E: F: and G: (D: is another HD in
the system).
Is it possible for Windows XP to load an boot from whichever
partition I choose? It allows me to choose the partition I desire,
but it doesn't then allow me to use it. Is that the reason for
this error, or is there some other problem.

Thanks very much for your assistance!

Remake the floppy diskettes.
You have one that is likely corrupted. Use 6 new floppy diskettes.

In fact - perform a full format on each one on another system before
creating the floppy diskette set with them so you can be sure the floppy
diskettes themselves are not corrupted.

 

[Guest]

Can you not change the HDD master/slave setup by changing the little metal
clip things (dont ask what they are) in the back of the HDD and when the
system tries to boot off the empty HDD it will ask for a boot disk. have CD
in and vola!

 

[Tom Ellison]

Dear Zen:

Ideally, I would do this. As I stated earlier, this computer's BIOS does
not support CD/DVD booting. What you suggest cannot then be done.

The BIOS specifically lists HD and Floppy in the list that describes the
devices and order for booting. It does not list CD or DVD. This is the
fundamental reason for my post here.

The moral of this is, DO NOT BUY a computer whose BIOS does not support
CD/DVD booting. This is especially true as Microsoft has declared they will
not be releasing future versions of Windows with FD boot support.

Tom Ellison