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Installing Win XP from scratch!

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by aka_pet

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I have been trying to figure out how to install XP from scratch (on a blank hard drive). However there doesn't seem to be an option to do this. There is no winnt.exe or winnt32.exe and the cd is not bootable. The only way I've been able to load XP is if there is an existing OS. I've been searching Technet etc but can find nothing. Does anyone have a solution? Thanks!

5 replies

by timthetoolman

Hi,

I guess this means that you have a copy of WinXP rather than an original?

There should be a setup.exe at the top level of the disk. It'll start the installation, but I've never tried it from DOS - which is what you'll have to boot to.

Better still, here is a site that will show you how to create a bootable version of the disk you've got...

http://www.windowsxp.nu/bootcd/

(remove spaces from the above URL)

...but my experience has been that the disk you've got is likely to be corrupted. One of the "manifest" files will possibly be blank and crash out your installation.

Verify that the following file is ok...

cd:\i386\asms\6000\msft\windows\common\controls\controls.man

It should look something like an XML text file (if you're familiar with that...)

The best solution is to get an original bootable copy.

Cheers,
Tim.

by aka_pet

I have an original but its from volumne licensing (select), not bootable. The setup.exe does not run from DOS, have tried that. Disk is not corrupted. Thanks anyway!

by dmiles

Go to the Microsoft XP web site and download the setup disk which will require six floppys
Ref:
1)www.bootdisk.com
2)www.drd.dyndns.org/disks.html

by aka_pet

Got a another version from MS that has the winnt.exe and winnt32.exe, haven't tried it yet but I'm sure it will work as the files are now there! Thanks!

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