you can then convert the fa32 drive to ntfs after windowsxp is installed by right clicking the drive in windoes explorer.. or in the command prompt: convert c: /FS:NTFS ----- Original Message ----- From: "genome" Newsgroups: gmane.comp.hardware.microcontrollers.pic,gmane.spam.detected Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 5:54 AM Subject: Re: [OT] Reinstalling XP > how large is the drive?? > this is what you must do... > try to format a disk in windows xp by right clicking drive A:> in windows > explorer and select format then from the menu select copy system files or > something that makes the floppy bootable.. you can boot from ths floppy > assuming you have a floppy drive... and acces the drive at the dos promt.. > then install windows xp by running setup in the i386 folder.. > > if you dont have a floppy drive... then takeout your disk again and slave > it on onother computer and then format it with FA32 and not NTFS.. then > copy winxp installation files to that drive.. after this restart and boot > to recovery console on the computer you used to format the drive.. and > install msdos on the fat32 drive.. return the drive to the other comp, > power up and msdos should boot.. now you can acces i386 folder and install > windowsxp.. > > "David VanHorn" wrote in message > news:25b178740609161244j5d97af0fk2e38ccbb3b9860fc@mail.gmail.com... >> Well this is bloody miserable. >> >> I took the drive out of the machine (nasty) and formatted it in NTFS, >> made >> the partition active, and copied the i386 directory to the drive, then >> reinstalled it. (nasty) >> >> The L1 Cannot boot from the CD, it is USB external, and there is NO >> option >> for an internal CD. >> The bios has a selection for 'boot from CD", but apparently that refers >> to >> an IDE CD, which is physically impossible. >> >> The six disk set from MS crashes on disk 5 >> >> Anything else I've tried, leaves me at a dos prompt, but no access to the >> hard disk to start the install process. >> >> Any ideas? >> -- >> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >> View/change your membership options at >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >> > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist