Questions about installing Win XP Home...

[Dogdaysdude]

Hi, all. I have a couple questions about installing Windows XP Home. I have the cd, but am not quite ready to install yet. I intend to do a clean install. Running Win 98 now on a Dell XPS R400 upgraded to a 1.2Ghz Powerleap.

1. If I have a CD-Writing drive and also a CD-ROM drive and set my bios to boot from the CD, which one will it look to boot from? (The writer is on motherboard IDE 1, and the cd-rom is on the motherboard IDE 2 channel.)

2. I look at the root directory of the XP CD and I don't see any boot files. Is there some other way it boots, other than command.com and other system files in the root dir.?

3. I have 2 hard drives going to a Promise Ultra 100 Tx2 IDE controller. Are there any special considerations concerning installing XP? I read at an internet site that UDMA controllers may cause an error message. (Can't find where now.)
Thanks much.

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"I try to think but nuthin' happens!" - Curly

[rond36]

When BIOS is set to boot from CD it will use the first ATAPI device it finds checking IDE 1 master than slave then go to IDE 2 master than slave so it will boot from the CD-RW drive on IDE 1 master and not even look for the CD-ROM drive. When Windows setup starts at the bottom of the screen it will ask if you need to install SCSI or RAID drivers and tells you to press a key (can't remember which key) press the key and it will allow you to install your Promise drivers. An easier way than installing by booting from CD is to insert the Win XP disk in Win 98 and choose to do a clean install and install it to drive C:. Have you given any thought to a multi-boot system if so follow the links in my Sig.

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How to Use Fdisk and Format to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q255867)
How to multi-boot Windows XP (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gettingstarted/multiboot.asp)
Microsoft Expert Zone Multi-booting made easy (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/russel/september10.asp)
MSKB How to multi-boot Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q306559)