Installing Windows

[Scrubmonky]

Hello thanks for reading...
I am trying to install windows xp on my comp, but when I boot from CD, it goes to a screen that says "detecting hardware config", then reboots..... by the way my bios IS detecting my hardware.
any ideas why or how to get around this?

[VmanBeBop]

trying booting of a command prompt startup disk and then starting windows setup from there.

[Scrubmonky]

ok how do i do that? :o

[VmanBeBop]

well make or get a windows 98 startup disk and put it into your computer. Make sure your settings in BIOS are to detect floppies first. Three options should come up. Select something like, Start command prompt WITH CD rom support. Then when the command prompt starts, type in your cd drive letter followed by a colon and press enter (x: where x is your drive letter). Then type cd\i386\ and press enter. Then type winnt.exe and press enter. An easier way is if you have a previous version of windows and doing a clean setup from windows (not an upgrade).

[Scrubmonky]

well that worked until the step where I open cd\i386\ . It said "invalid directory"... remember I am installing xp.
thanks for you help by the way
Any help?:D


-UPDATE- I tried just E:\winnt.exe, and it said "error reading drive C:\" retry, abort, fail?

one word .. HUH?

[newgeek]

It's possible that the hd is already recognized as NTFS format.
Use the FDISK command to remove the partition from your HD.
Create a new PRIMARY DOS partition using FDISK
Restart the pc and use FORMAT to format the HD.
Now boot from the XP cd and I bet you will have better luck.
I'm not guessing, I have seen this before on pc's that were upgrades.

[Scrubmonky]

Well I'm sorry to say that all was for naught--- turns out my windows XP cd was damaged.... tested out a family member's cd and it worked...
thanks for all of your help though guys...... I really appreciate it!

:p :D