reinstall of XP

[Tu]

hey,

I'm planning to reinstall XP (in hopes of fixing MASSES of problems
caused by half a year worth of playing on the internet ), but I want
to reformat my disks fully before installing it.

I couldn't even find a mention about a boot disk for XP (home), and I'm
quite sure that my PC isn't configured to boot from a CD.
I've had problems with installing win2k that way (without a 2k
bootdisk), so I was wondering if anyone could help me here before I
completely break this computer aswell, and need to go trough the
rigorous routine of fdisking to a DOS disk, installing 98/ME and
upgrading to XP (home) again

Thanks,
- Tul

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

hey,

I'm planning to reinstall XP (in hopes of fixing MASSES of problems
caused by half a year worth of playing on the internet ), but I want
to reformat my disks fully before installing it.

I couldn't even find a mention about a boot disk for XP (home), and I'm
quite sure that my PC isn't configured to boot from a CD.

But setting it to do so is a trivial BIOS change on any PC that is
likely to be capable of running XP (well, 99% of them anyway). Just
enter the BIOS and change the boot order. You'll need to change it back
at some point during the setup though, or you'll be booting from the CD
forever.

I've had problems with installing win2k that way (without a 2k
bootdisk), so I was wondering if anyone could help me here before I
completely break this computer aswell, and need to go trough the
rigorous routine of fdisking to a DOS disk, installing 98/ME and
upgrading to XP (home) again

No need to install Win98, if you go the 'boot from CD' route, although
you'll need to show your Win98 CD to WinXP during the install (assuming
you have an upgrade version of XP).

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Boot a Win9x startup floppy, load CD drivers.Switch to the CD and run
winnt.exe from the I386 folder. This will start the installer. Choose a new
install, you can format as part of it.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Drew]

Another way to create a boot disk for Xp, you will need "3" files on the
floppy. These "3" files hard hidden, so you'll need to go into Folder
optons of win explorer to unhide system files. After that, copy the 3 files
into the the floppy. Here are the steps.

Place a floppy disk in the floppy disk drive, type format a: at a command
prompt, and then press ENTER.

Copy the NtLDR and the NtDetect.com files from the i386 folder on the
Windows XP Setup CD-ROM, Windows XP Setup floppy disk, or from a computer
that is running the same version of Windows XP as the computer that you want
to access with the boot floppy.

Create a Boot.ini file (or copy one from a computer that is running Windows
XP), and then modify it to match the computer that you are trying to access.
The following example works for a "single-partition" IDE drive with Windows
XP installed in the \Windows folder, but the exact value in the [operating
systems] section depends on the configuration of the Windows XP computer
that you are trying to access:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
Default= multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Windows XP"

If your computer boots from a "SCSI" hard drive, you may need to replace the
multi(0) entry with scsi(0). If you are using scsi(x) in the Boot.ini file,
copy the correct device driver for the SCSI controller in use on the
computer to the root of the Setup disk, and then rename it Ntbootdd.sys.
Change the disk(0) number to represent the SCSI-ID of the hard drive you
want to boot to. If you are using multi(x) in the Boot.ini file, you do not
need to do this.
Start your computer by using the floppy disk, and then log on to Windows XP.

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