Installing XP


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I am trying to install Windows XP on my gateway.

Now, the thing is, I cant boot from the CD (BIOS wont boot).

I downloaded the install boot disk maker thing of the Microsoft website but it doesn't work (when I boot them, I get messages saying files are missing.

Any ideas how I would go about installing it?

Thanks,

Alan (DWZ)

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Download the boot disk creation util again, and try again.

Its an absolute nightmare, 6 disks isn't it? WTF do you need 6 disks for! :)

I'm in the same position with my second work machine, bios refuses to allow boot from cd, so I have to go through the annoying process of a floppy boot.

I'm sure a network install is possible using unattend.ini and the like, well I know it is, but its not really a simple solution.

Still, if you want to look into it.. look at the deployment.cab on the xp cd.

Jon

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This is the easiest way to do it:

  1. Download or make a Windows 98/ME bootdisk ( http://www.bootdisk.com )
  2. Make sure smartdrv.exe is present on the disk
  3. Boot up with the floppy and choose "Run Windows with CD-ROM support"
  4. Run smartdrv.exe from the A:> prompt - if it has worked correctly it wont say anything, it will just give you another A:> prompt.
  5. Navigate to the i386 folder of the Windows XP CD (the cd drive should be one letter after its usual letter)
  6. Run winnt.exe and you're set, if a message pops up saying smartdrive wasn't detected, it hasn't loaded, exit and try to load it again.

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Thanks aco for that. It all worked, till a point. I did everything you said and ran winnt.exe. It asked where the install files where, and I told it. It then gave me a message saying that I didn't have enough disk space. Something like It needed 400mb of space and failed to find a hard disk with that amount of space on it.

The thing is, it should see a formated 6.5gb NTFS drive there.

Any ideas?

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Not to sure what smartdrv.exe does ???

But I am pretty sure a 98/ME boot disc will not recoqnise ntfs... so I would reformat your drive to fat32 and then let the XP installation format your drive back to ntfs.

try it again .... good luck

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I went to the K-Mart and got a pack of 25 floppy disks. Downloaded the file of the Microsoft site again, and the install worked :D

Guess the disks must have had been bad or something.

OK, but now I run into a problem. I have set it to share the network card with the internet on it.

I can surf the net fine from it. The thing is, I cant do that from any other computer. From my other computers I can ping the gateway. But when I try to ping the clients (not with OptusHome) from the gateway, I get this:

<pre>C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator>ping 169.254.55.48



Pinging 169.254.55.48 with 32 bytes of data:



PING: transmit failed, error code 65.

PING: transmit failed, error code 65.

PING: transmit failed, error code 65.

PING: transmit failed, error code 65.



Ping statistics for 169.254.55.48:

    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),



C:Documents and SettingsAdministrator></pre>

I need help!

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