WinMe To XP

[12345678910]

My friend wants to format his harddrive so he can install XP on his computer.

I am going to do this for him, but I have some questions.

I have never formatted and installed an operating system before, but I think I can handle it.

- Format C:/

- And then I should be able to pop the XP CD in the computer and install it like this.

- Do I have to partition the drive after it's formatted before I can install Windows XP?

I am completely new to this process and don't want to mess anything up.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
12345678910

[r_xq]

you dont need to do any of that.

just run win me, pop in the XP CD and install from there.
you can format or partition the hard drive as part of the installation process. its quite hard to mess it up

[12345678910]

Originally posted by r_xq
you dont need to do any of that.

just run win me, pop in the XP CD and install from there.
you can format or partition the hard drive as part of the installation process. its quite hard to mess it up

Awesome.

Even if the CD is in .ISO form and not the original? ( If you know what I mean...)

Thanks,
12345678910

[p00n1s]

make sure you have a concrete cd of XP. that means burn the iso image to a cd-r. do NOT use anything like daemon toolsto mount the image, as you will not be able to mount it into the installation process. i tried to do that once and it left my computer unusable. anyway, if you need to back up anything, do so. then, insert the XP cd and restart. if you need to, select your cd drive as the boot device. you will be guided through the installation process. it's pretty much self-explanitory. if you want to do a "clean" install, delete all the partitions on your hard drive and add them as needed. in most cases, you will only need one partition. then, install to the desired partition and you're good to go

[Tremaine]

smart move i hate me, it what im stuck with for now but i can live with it now because i tweaked alot of the registry with regedit now it bareable.

[phalkon30]

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

Its an excelent guide with screen shots

[n00dles]

He should definatly do a clean install of XP, NOT upgrade, otherwize he might get all sort of problems. btw its 'format c:\' with \ not / :P

[cpugeniusmv]

Originally posted by n00dles
He should definatly do a clean install of XP, NOT upgrade, otherwize he might get all sort of problems. btw its 'format c:\' with \ not / :P
actually, technically, if i remember correctly...you don't use a / or a \ just format c:

[n00dles]

Originally posted by cpugeniusmv
actually, technically, if i remember correctly...you don't use a / or a \ just format c:
oh your right... i havent reformatted in a while sence i got XP :P (used to do it all the time when i had 98, lol) sorry

[cpugeniusmv]

Originally posted by n00dles
oh your right... i havent reformatted in a while sence i got XP :P (used to do it all the time when i had 98, lol) sorry
haha, don't worry...same here, same here :-)

[maartendc]

I think you should definatly format before installing xp. Win me is a virus, a desease, you don't want anything of that stuff to stay behind! Trust me! Delete that me crap all the way!

And that you can't use a deamon tools .iso to install an OS is pretty obvious isn't it? I mean, the OS is the heart of your pc. Averything else is placed on top of the foundations that the OS are.. You can't run something when the foundations aren't complete can you?

[n00dles]

BTW, you might have a few problems with his serial number and sp1, if he's planning to install sp1 go to http://xpkey.cjb.net (ignore the stuff about changing the serial, just read about how to get the keygen and how to use it)

[12345678910]

Thanks guys for the help. It turns out that when I tried to install XP, it told me that the program was not a win32 application. ( I think that is what it said, but I am not sure)

I will either look for another copy of Windows XP to install or just go with the Windows 98 CD-Rom I have at my house once we get it formatted. If anyone has any information on the Microsoft XP CD, PM me instead of posting it here.

So we started from the ground up. Of course I couldn't format while Windows was running so we tried to start in DOS. He doesn't have a "Restart in DOS" in his Shutdown menu.

So we tried to get it their from the startup itself. Holding Delete got us to the BIOS. But from there we couldn't get to DOS.

We even tried to start in Safe Mode, but no luck there.

We did this the whole time while talking to my dad over the telephone. He is presently on vacation, but knows a whole lot more than me in this area. There is just not much you can accomplish over the phone with a computer you have never seen, I guess.

We will wait until he gets back and he gets a chance to go take a look at the computer.

My friend has major problems with his Compaq Windows ME computer. His dial up connection tries to dial up to the service out of the blue. He gets multiple error messages all the time and frequently freezes. So we decided that we would try to get rid of that garbage Windows ME and go with something more stable.

I have learned a lot so far..... yeah, it's format c:\ , not format c:/....

Thanks,
12345678910

[twuckDrifer]

If you do a clean install of me,then you can upgrade with no problems. You shouldn't install over a buggy me because the problems will carry over to xp.

[12345678910]

Originally posted by twuckDrifer
If you do a clean install of me,then you can upgrade with no problems. You shouldn't install over a buggy me because the problems will carry over to xp.

That's a problem because his dad got rid of all the computer related things such as the pamphlets and cds and such. Why? I have no idea. He said he was "cleaning out their closet."

12345678910

[phalkon30]

To start in the dos prompt, randomly tap F8, I think between beeps, it should bring up a menu asking how you want it to boot

But you don't need to do that for XP, did you make sure to set your CD rom as your primary boot device from the BIOS, if you can't do that, get the startup disk set for xp from http://www.bootdisk.com/original.htm

It should give you all the tools you need to load windows xp

Btw, check out some sig2dat sites, they should have a copy of XP corp, or you could allways "buy" it

[12345678910]

Originally posted by phalkon30
To start in the dos prompt, randomly tap F8, I think between beeps, it should bring up a menu asking how you want it to boot

But you don't need to do that for XP, did you make sure to set your CD rom as your primary boot device from the BIOS, if you can't do that, get the startup disk set for xp from http://www.bootdisk.com/original.htm

It should give you all the tools you need to load windows xp

Btw, check out some sig2dat sites, they should have a copy of XP corp, or you could allways "buy" it

We set the CD Rom to primary and whatnot. I will relay the message about tapping F8 at startup to my dad. I think that will help us a lot. The main objective today was to just format the drive so we can start fresh with Windows XP or 98.

I am not positive about what OS we will try yet. If I can do it myself and find a working copy of XP; that is what we will do.

If my dad does it, then we will probably install Windows 98 or he will tell them to buy Windows XP. I know..., I know, he does not at all trust any software downloaded off of the internet. He believes for it to work properly than you should buy it from the store. For some cases this is true, but not for all.

I will continue to look for a good copy of XP.

I am not sure when the next time I will be able to get some free time to go over there because of school so I can finish this. But, any help is appreciated and will be put into use if it will help.

Thanks,
12345678910

[phalkon30]

Well why didn't you say it that way the first time, lol

If you just want to format the drive, use a 98 Startup disk, then run fdisk, it will wipe it clean

The reason I suggested the xp startup disk, is because it has the reformat options built in, actually, its for prepping your drive for installation, mainly for NTFS, but can be done with Fat32

[12345678910]

Originally posted by phalkon30
Well why didn't you say it that way the first time, lol

If you just want to format the drive, use a 98 Startup disk, then run fdisk, it will wipe it clean

The reason I suggested the xp startup disk, is because it has the reformat options built in, actually, its for prepping your drive for installation, mainly for NTFS, but can be done with Fat32

Ok. It seems as if I have many options as to which direction I can go. I will wait and see what my dad has planned when he gets back from Texas. I will tell him everything that everyone mentioned; I know it will help.

Thanks,
12345678910

[CCSDUDE]

123456789: PM me and I'll hook you up with a 'good' copy of XP.

The easier way of doing it (without the tapping F8 hassle) is to make a boot disk.

Once it's made find "format.com" on the windows ME system and copy it to the floppy.

Now boot from said floppy, type "fdisk" and delete the partitions.

Now create a new partition, restart with the floppy in the drive, type "format c: /s"

Let it format then get ready to install whatever OS.

ME/98/95 is easy....just boot with the CD in place and wait for one of two things.

a C: prompt or windows setup auto loading.

If you get the prompt then try typing "X:\" X being the cd's drive letter.

if you get "invalid drive" then your bios don't support CD's booting so you need to boot from a floppy with mscdexe on it along with the driver and some lines in your autoexec.bat.

Someone can give you a bit of help with that, my explanations suck.

For XP your problem is finding a good copy....not a problem, PM me and I'll hook you up.

Later