The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:
NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.
1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.
===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===>
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.
5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]
6. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".
7. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.
--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| I have two harddrives. One is a backup harddrive that I use to boot up with if I have a problem with my
primary HD. I recently had to format my primary HD because of problems. It was formatted in NTFS. Now I
need to re-install XP on that formatted HD. I was going to put on Windows '98 and then upgrade from there,
but you have to have a FAT32 formatted HD to load '98. It won't let me format it to FAT32. How can I get XP
on my primary harddrive? I want to boot up from that drive eventually, and not even use the other HD.
