WindowsXP installation beside DOS

[Steve Crook]

I've built 100's of Windows PC's, but I've yet to find a better solution to
the following scenario. Guess I should have asked sooner!

I like to build PC's with a primary DOS partition. Under this I can install
DriveImage Pro or Ghost in order to recover systems rapidly from an image
in the event of a problem. My partition preferences are:
C: FAT16 DOS
D: NTFS WindowsXP
E: NTFS Data drive
F: - CDROM drive

I've found this virtually impossible to achieve as the XP install insists on
assigning the CDROM to D: and then installing XP to E: The only solution
I've found is to copy the i386 directory from the CD to the DOS (C
partition, then physically disconnecting the CDROM drive until after the
entire installation has completed. This is a painfully slow process and
requires having DOS drivers for the CDROM drive.

Surely there has to be an easier way to do this?

 

[Guest]

Wonder why one would go thru all that confusion,besides by default xp
should reside on C: sure it can be any other,but youve already created flaws
w/o even starting the installation(s).....

 

[Steve Crook]

Wonder why one would go thru all that confusion,besides by default xp
should reside on C: sure it can be any other,but youve already created
flaws w/o even starting the installation(s).....

I've never heard of an installation being "flawed" because XP isn't
installed on C:. There must be hundreds of examples on Microsofts' website
where they explain how to install XP with DOS/Win9x.

 

[Sir Timbit]

Well, what I've always done is:
1) install XP onto drive C,
2) Boot from a CD-ROM and run the DOS version of Partition Magic,
3) Set up a D: partition for Documents and Settings,
4) Set up an E: partition for a Restore partition
5) Run Ghost and dump the ghost file to drive E.

This way, you can also restore your system in the future without losing all
your documents, favorites, mail, etc (once you've configured Windows to
store all your stuff in drive D.) Works great for me.