Windows XP Setup Help

I have been frustrated with my futile attempts in installing XP over 98.....

Heres the predicament Im in:

Recently, I decided to go XP Pro. I had extremely limited room on my single partition ( about 500 megs), so I conlcuded that I would perform a clean install-- format my hard drive and start from scratch. So, I backed up my files and restarted to MS-DOS(remember, Im on Windows 98, not 98 SE). I used fdisk to erase the partition, and then to create a new partition. I restart my comp, only to see a blinking cursor. I pop in the Windows 98 boot disk into my floppy drive and the Windows XP Professional Installation CD into my E:\ drive. I boot from the floppy, selecting the "Boot up with CD support" option. Finally, I try to run the XP Pro setup file from the command prompt, typing "E:\setup.exe". I get this:"This program cannot open in DOS." Thats as far as I got.

All I want to do is have a single partition, specifically FAT32, with ONLY Windows XP Pro on it.

I have used fdisk to wipe out my old partition, then I set up a new one.

I restarted my computer, with the Windows 98 Boot Disk in the Floppy Drive and the Windows XP Pro setup CD in my cd-rom drive, E:\. MS-DOS tells me I cannot execute the setup file within the Setup cd. What do I do now???

Sorry if this thread is irrelevant to this site.............I just felt as if the crew at AO could answer my question before I go signing up for another site....... Thanx

Go to your BIOS and set it to boot off your CD-ROM, as in CD-ROM is the first drive checked. Reboot with the XPPro (good luck) disk in the drive.

Ok, sounds logical. But is there another solution? I definetely do not want to get entangled into editing the BIOS, but ok. Thanx

Assuming that your hard drive is at least 2 Gig:

1. In DOS , format the partition that you have made with fdisk.

2. Setup.exe will not run under DOS, that is true. It is called through autorun when you drop the disk in while in Windows. So......

In DOS, switch to your CD-ROM drive, then to the I386 folder. Run WINNT.EXE, which is the command to install XP if no 32-bit OS is running.

fyi, if a 32-bit OS ~WAS RUNNING~, you would run WINNT32.EXE from the same folder.

Let me know if you need more details.

Tim

Just a quick note about vegaswolves' procedure: A lesson I learned the hard way years ago is to be SURE you have smartdrv.exe loaded on your boot disk before you run winnt.exe, or else the file copying will take several hours.

There are also Windows XP installation floppies available for download from Microsoft's web site. The link was posted here as recently as a couple of days ago, and a decent Google search should turn them up.

hehehehehehehe.....

As soon as I hit send I thought "SMARTDRV!!!!"

Very true....I installed 2000 Advanced Server in one of my classrooms without running Smart Drive; file copy took 3 hours. With Smart Drive on the next machine (identical hardware): file copy took 20 minutes.

Definitely run smartdrv before surfing out to that I386 folder.

Tim

Thanx a ton guys. On Palemoon's suggestion, finally (gasp) edited my BIOS. And to my glee, my computer booted to the CD-ROM drive, where it recognized the setup file and began installation. BUT, now I have a new problem...

A I mentioned earlier, I used fdisk to delete my single, active partition; I created another one, which I chose XP to install from. Now XP is installed and functional, but to my dismay, the partition it installed on was only 2 GB! I have an 8 GB HD! When I use Norton Utilities for my Hard Drive Stats, it tells me about 6 GB are "unallocated." I soon realize "fdisk" is no longer a command on XP. My queston is this: How can I retrieve the lost 6 GB and make them useable? Is there any way I can tack it on to my active partition?

try win XP's computer management tools, they may be able to help you allocate your unallocated 6 gig of space, i think they can be found in control panel under performance tools or just in control panel if you have the classic mode on, go into the admin tools to find computer management

then once you have comp management up and running have a look in the left column of the new screen and have a look at what is listed in storage, you might see your unpartitioned 6 gig of space which i think you can set active and format it from there.

hope this is of some help

If its still an option I recommend starting from scratch again with the windows XP cd in, boot off the cd and delete the old partion and create a new one off the cd. XP allows this and when I bought a new hard drive recently, they recommended I use the XP cd to format and partition it as opposed to their disk tools. just a thought. Or as mrleachy said you can just create a second partition out of what is left and use that as a storage drive.

No offense or anything, but why is he getting assigned very postive antipoints when he is asking a question while I get negged for posting a tutorial on how hackers use batch files to screw over computers?

Actually "HurrayForSchool," I did not get any antipoints. If you look a little harder, you will see that Palemoon and vegaswolves are the only ones that got positive points. It might take awhile to get used to posting about whats relevant, and whats not. Just like your post-- irrelevent. Go start your own thread on it. No offense ;)

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the partition it installed on was only 2 GB!

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Sounds like you created a partition with large disk support off in fdisk. You have 4 choices:

1) Repartition with DOS fdisk but use large disk support, and tell it to use the full disk capacity and format with FAT32. You can then either leave it FAT32 or convert to NTFS during the XP install.
2) Use XP's installation utility to delete the partition and create a new on using the full capacity (my recommendation).
3) Right click on My Computer --> Manage --> Disk Management and create a new volume on the unallocated space. You can either assign it a new drive letter (D: or something) or mount it in an empty folder (a la Linux)
4) Get a partition management like Partition Magic that can resize your primary partition to fill the disk. If it's formatted as FAT32 you can download Mandrake Linux and use the installation utility to resize it. Otherwise, you're going to spend some money.

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why is he getting assigned very postive antipoints when he is asking a question while I get negged

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Whining will only get you more negs. I'm the one who gave vegaswolves points because he gave the right answer in a clear and concise manner, and he deserved some points for that. If you post something that deserves greens, you'll get some too.