Will XP install from CD ROM on a clean drive

[nath202]

After deleting and setting up a new partition will XP install from the CD ROM? or will i get messages saying setup is not a valid function or whatever it says.

[duplicitous]

If the drive is 'clean' and you boot from the cdrom it should install no problem

[Virgin San]

... so long as you have a boot disk not an upgrade disk. And your system is set to boot from the CD.

I seem to remember that the "setup is not valid" message comes along when you boot to DOS with a startup disk and then try to run setup from the upgrade CD.

I'm going back a few years here so this might be complete garbage :)

[PhilEnfield]

I'm pretty sure these days, that even with an Upgrade version you will be able to install from CD.
It will ask you to insert the qualifying product disk (i.e. W98 or WSE), during installation.

As mentioned above, you must boot from the CD ROM, not from a Start-Up disk.

[emailrob]

Normally press F8 on startup and you can select CDROM as the boot device. Otherwise set it in the BIOS options, but remember to change it back or it will keep self-booting from the CDROM forever!

[BlackDiamondJr]

I normally leave the Hard Drive unpartitioned and unformatted.
Then I set the boot sequence to HD first and CD-ROM second.
When the system boots it will detect that the HD is blank and switch to the CD-ROM.
The HD is then partitioned and formated and the setup files are loaded to the HD.
Upon reboot, the system will automatically boot from the HD as it was set as the first boot device, so I never have to go back into the BIOS and switch from CD-ROM boot to HD boot.

[PhilEnfield]

Yup if the HD is clean, no need to alter boot sequence.

[nath202]

Altering anything in BIOS wasnt an option as it was all in chinese! which i am not... i just put the cd in booted with win98 disk, found the makeboot dir and made the boot disks needed to setup via floppy... Worked a treat. Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Virgin San]

Wow. Scenic route!

[PhilEnfield]

:)