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Format / XP Help

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by mikep

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Hello,

Please can you help me with the following:

I want to do a complete format of my H/Disk. I am running Windows XP. I have backed up all the files from Windows/I386 directory to CD ready as I never got an XP CD when I purchased my laptop as this was the only way I could save my XP instalation files. I have tried a dummy run with my XP CD by booting into dos and then typing 'Win32nt'at the D:\ but all I get is the following message saying, 'Will not run in DOS' so how do I install windows XP once I have formatted my H/Disk? I would like to make a dual boot system running XP and maybe Win98 or ME. Do I have to make 98 or ME as my primary operating system and then install XP? or can I install XP first and then 98 or ME? after partitioning my H/Disk?

I hope you can give me some advice on how to do the above.

Thank you

Mike

6 replies

by dmiles

This process will not work if you donot have the XP-cd,the install from the manufacturer has the .CAB files compressed whereas you are unable to uncompress the files to load on your system,
this method of purchasing XP already installed is going tobecome a noghtmare for a lot of people

by dmiles

Reference a previous post of this question that was posted on or about the 19 Feb,that pre-installed Windows XP on the system.
You will need a utility to un-ompress the files and then re-burn the CD by extracting the files from your hard drive which may be difficult to do on a laptop

by acoada

What you have to do is what is called a system restore....I believe you received a restore disk when you bought your laptop.. All you need to do is to change the boot order in your BIOS to make sure that the boot sequence is from the CDROM and then boot from your restore CD. I hope this helps...I have done it on my laptop several times..It does work!!

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