Installing Windows XP

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Installation Methods for Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional

There are several different ways to install Windows XP Home or XP Professional. The following write-up discusses those ways, the benefits and disadvantages to each and the screens that you can expect to see during the "DOS" or "Blue Screen" portion of the setup.

These screen shots are from an XP Home installation, but they are identical to XP Pro.

Boot from CD
Boot from Setup Boot Floppy set
Install from CD
Over the Network
Install from GUI with Autoplay or from Run
Install using drive imaging
Install using RIS (Remote Installation Service)

Clean install from the GUI

Boot from CD. (back to top)

Starting an install in this manner eliminates the need to have a partitioned and formatted hard drive prior to installation. Probably on of the most foolproof methods for beginners.

Verify that your first boot device is your CD-ROM drive. Do this by entering CMOS setup. The method for entering CMOS and the actual location of this screen will vary depending on your brand of computer. Consult your motherboard documentation.

Place you CD in your drive and turn on your computer. Setup will start and copy the necessary files into RAM. You will then get the first screen. Press ENTER to begin the installation. The remaining steps are identical no matter how you started the installation. Remaining steps.

Boot from Setup Boot Floppy set (back to top)

Starting an install in this manner eliminates the need to have a partitioned and formatted hard drive prior to installation.

Create the 6 setup boot disks from the file available from Microsoft. Get the files for XP Home or XP Professional from here. You will need 6 blank, formatted floppy disks.

Put the first disk in your floppy drive and turn on the computer. Replace each disk as prompted. When the 6 disks are loaded into RAM you'll see the first screen appear. Select Enter.

You'll then get the following screen, prompting you for you XP CD-ROM. The following steps are identical not matter how you started the install. Remaining steps.

Over the Network (back to top)

An over the network install, eliminates the need for a CD ROM and/or a floppy drive in your computer. It will also allow you to install several copies of XP simultaneously on different computers. Before starting, copy the i386 directory from your hard drive to a network server and share the directory.

Start the installation by booting with a floppy disk with network support. Details here.
Note: You must have smartdrv.exe running on this disk or installation times will be staggering.

Map a drive to your network share by typing NET USE X: \\COMPUTERNAME\SHARENAME replacing 'computername' with the NetBIOS name of your computer and 'sharename' with the name that you shared the i386 as.

Switch to your network and type the following at the command prompt: X:\i386\winnt replacing "X" with your actual drive letter.

The installation will start.

On the next screen you will be prompted for the location of you installation files. Type in X:\i386 replacing "X" with your actual drive letter. You can bypass this screen by using the following syntax when starting your installation from the command prompt.
X:\i386\winnt /s:X:\i386. The /S switch defines the location of the startup files.

Setup will modify the master board record, changing the required startup files to NTLDR, BOOT.INI and NTDETECT.COM. It will then copy the setup files to temporary folders on your hard drive. The folder's names are:
$WIN_NT$.~BT and $WIN_NT$.~LS When the file copy is completed you'll see the first screen.

The remaining steps are identical no matter how you started the installation. Remaining steps.
Note: You will not be able to delete your C partition if you did not boot from CD or boot from floppy.

Install from CD (back to top)

These steps require a Windows 95, 98 or ME boot disk with CD-ROM support.

Switch to your network and type the following at the command prompt: X:\i386\winnt replacing "X" with your actual drive letter.

The installation will start.

Details for this option are being prepared. (back to top)

Remaining Steps--Common to all methods

Once you press enter at the first screen, a blue screen entitled Windows Setup will appear. At the bottom of this screen is the option to Press F6 if you need or install a third party SCSI or RAID driver. Then Setup will load a few files. You'll then get the message that "Setup is now starting Windows ."

The End User License Agreement (EULA) will appear on the screen. You should read this. Then press F* to accept.

If you are performing a clean install with an Upgrade version of XP, the next screen will be a prompt to insert your original CD from your previous operating system.

Setup will now determine if there are any previous installations of XP on your hard drive. If one is detected, you'll get the following screen. This is where you would try to repair an existing installation. Technicians have be reinstalling operating systems "over top of themselves" for years to replace damaged files.

You will now be given the opportunity to decide where XP is installed. You'll also be able to create and delete partitions in the next screen.

Highlight the unpartitioned space and press C: to create a partition. The next screen will appear giving you the opportunity to decide how large to create the partition. Enter the appropriate number and press Enter.

Your new partition will appear on the next screen.

Highlight the partition where you wish to install XP and click on enter. Note: You can also delete partitions from this screen. You will not be able to delete your C: partition unless you started your install from the setup boot floppies or boot from CD. Also: XP requires at least 990 MB of free disk space (2GB is recommended.) If you choose a partition with less than 990 MB of space, you cannot continue with setup.

Once you've selected the partition, you'll be presented with a format screen. Select the appropriate format type. Note: If you partition is less than 2047 MB and you choose FAT, you will automatically be formatted in FAT16. Recommend formatting in FAT and converting the partition to NTFS after the installation. Also, if there is an existing formatted partition, you'll be presented with two additional choices on the list below:
Convert the partition to NTFS
Leave the current file system intact (no changes)

Setup will then format the drive, examine hard disk and begin the OS installation. It will automatically reboot and the GUI portion of the install will begin.

If setup detects an existing installation attempt, you will receive the following screen.

Pressing ESCAPE will take you to a screen to rename the system root.

Previous installations were discussed earlier.

Clean install from the GUI

If you want to do a clean install from and existing operating, put in the CD and let it autoplay OR go to Start, Run, type WINNT32 and press Enter. The installation will begin. On the first screen, hit the drop down box and select New Installation.

Over the Network (back to top)

An over the network install, eliminates the need for a CD ROM and/or a floppy drive in your computer. It will also allow you to install several copies of XP simultaneously on different computers. Before starting, copy the i386 directory from your hard drive to a network server and share the directory.

Start the installation by booting with a floppy disk with network support. Details here.
Note: You must have smartdrv.exe running on this disk or installation times will be staggering.

Switch to your network and type the following at the command prompt: X:\i386\winnt replacing "X" with your actual drive letter.

The installation will start.

Network Boot Disk (back to top) (back to network install)

You can get a network boot disk template for either the TCP/IP or IPX/SPX protocols from NetworkCert.Net. Instructions on how to convert it for your card are included.
You will need to supply a Win98SE boot disk containing the following files: IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM.
You will need to have your network card's NDIS drivers and the sample PROTOCOL.INI file for reference. Obtain these from your installation floppy or CD for you NIC. You can also obtain them from the manufacturer's website. Good site for drivers of any kind--saves a lot of work--is DriverZone

I recommend using the IPX/SPX protocol. Less overhead, no need for a DHCP server on your network and if installing multiple computers, there is no need to give each a different NetBIOS computer name.