XP Pro CD. Floppy diskettes?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jane D
  • Start date Start date
J

Jane D

I am going to reformat my hard drive on my home PC and re-install XP
Pro.

All I have got is my XP Pro CD.

Do I also need to have a floppy diskette (six XP diskettes maybe) to
reformat and create an NTFS or FAT partition?

I remember that when I had Windows 98, I needed a Win98 boot diskette
in order to reformat the drive and re-install Win98. Is this true of
XP Pro too?
 
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 the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

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 all 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. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. 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.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I am going to reformat my hard drive on my home PC and re-install XP
| Pro.
|
| All I have got is my XP Pro CD.
|
| Do I also need to have a floppy diskette (six XP diskettes maybe) to
| reformat and create an NTFS or FAT partition?
|
| I remember that when I had Windows 98, I needed a Win98 boot diskette
| in order to reformat the drive and re-install Win98. Is this true of
| XP Pro too?
 
In
Jane D said:
I am going to reformat my hard drive on my home PC and
re-install XP
Pro.

All I have got is my XP Pro CD.

Do I also need to have a floppy diskette (six XP diskettes
maybe) to
reformat and create an NTFS or FAT partition?
Click to expand...



No.
Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if
necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when
prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

However why do you want to reformat and reinstall? In my view,
it's almost always a mistake. With a modicum of care, it should
never be necessary to reinstall Windows (XP or any other
version). I've run Windows 3.0, 3.1, WFWG 3.11, Windows 95,
Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, each for the period of
time before the next version came out, and each on two machines
here. I never reinstalled any of them, and I have never had
anything more than an occasional minor problem.

It's my belief that this mistaken notion stems from the technical
support people at many of the larger OEMs. Their solution to
almost any problem they don't quickly know the answer to is
"reformat and reinstall." That's the perfect solution for them.
It gets you off the phone quickly, it almost always works, and it
doesn't require them to do any real troubleshooting (a skill that
most of them obviously don't possess in any great degree).

But it leaves you with all the work and all the problems. You
have to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all
your programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and
application updates,you have to locate and install all the needed
drivers for your system, you have to recustomize Windows and all
your apps to work the way you're comfortable with.

Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome,
you may have trouble with some of them: can you find all your
application CDs? Can you find all the needed installation codes?
Do you have data backups to restore? Do you even remember all the
customizations and tweaks you may have installed to make
everything work the way you like?

Occasionally there are problems that are so difficult to solve
that Windows should be reinstalled cleanly. But they are few and
far between; reinstallation should not be a substitute for
troubleshooting; it should be a last resort, to be done only
after all other attempts at troubleshooting by a qualified person
have failed.

If you have problems, post them here; it's likely that someone
can help you and a reinstallation won't be required.
 
Carey said:
NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.
Click to expand...

Once you pull the data cable the drive doesn't exist. No need to pull
power. Is this
really worthwhile considering that you may also have to change a hard
drive jumper?
 
A boot diskette is a thing of the past, as all legitimate WinXP
installation CDs are already bootable.

Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the
opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the
installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot
devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.)

HOW TO Install Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH
 
Jane said:
I am going to reformat my hard drive on my home PC and re-install XP
Pro.

All I have got is my XP Pro CD.

Do I also need to have a floppy diskette (six XP diskettes maybe) to
reformat and create an NTFS or FAT partition?
Click to expand...

The XP CD is bootable; the floppy set is only for machines that
positively *cannot* boot a CD. Set BIOS boot order to CD first, and
boot the XP CD direct. Enter Setup, and after the license agreement
take New Install. When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select
and delete the current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted
at the next stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one
 
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