This might be a couple of years to late. I originally decided to install WinXP on my computer a couple of years ago.
I started with Windows ME and
decided to upgrade from within Windows. My first experience with this
new operating system. But it wouldn't install. I can't remember the
exact error message but I then decided to format my drive and reinstall
from scratch.
I used a Win98 boot disk to boot up my computer, then proceeded to format the drive. I had chosen the option to enable with CDROM support, so I switched to the CDROM drive and tried to run the setup program.
I was astonished when it would not run! Something about not being able to run in MSDOS!!!
Needless to say after just erased my hard drive...for what? I
thought....not being able to install on a clean hard drive??? Bill
Gates must be losing it!! :-)
So I had to reinstall WinME. Either that or Win98. ME was supposed to be the more advanced so ME it was. Once I got everything set up again I decided to do a search online to find out why I couldn't install WinXP. I had the minimum system requirements; P2-266mhz, 64MB RAM, but still couldn't get it to install.
I did find a way to both install within Windows and even in MSDOS mode.
First the Windows way. I
decided to first copy the install folder to my hard drive (like I
always did with previous versions). In the case of WinXP it's the i386 folder. You could of course just run the install directly from the CDROM.
Then I had to click on Start then Run and typed msconfig. When the msconfig utility opened up, on the first tab, called general, I chose Selective Startup and then unchecked the following options:
The only item remaining checked was Process System.ini file. Then for this to take affect I had to restart the computer.
Once the computer restarted, I used what has always been my favorite way to explore my hard drive, Windows Explorer. Anyway I navigated to the i386 folder on my hard drive - c:\i386\ and searched for the file WINNT32, now that I think about it, I could of just typed it in the RUN command mentioned previously. Whats done is done!
Double clicking on WINNT32 would start up the install program. I hoped, and it did. Been using XP ever since.
Now the MSDOS way.
First of all you can try booting of the CDROM.
booting of a CDROM -(examples)
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_enable_cdrom_support_i.htm
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/articles/bios/
Unfortunately, on my antique computers, I cannot boot of the CDROM. So I would have to resort to using a good old fashion bootable floppy disk.
So I would have to boot of the floppy
and to choose the menu option at the boot screen to enable the CDROM
support. Its recommended that you include a program called SMARTDRIVE on the boot disk. It would be loaded simply by typing the command SMARTDRV before running the install program.
If you know the MSDOS commands, you could create a folder on your hard drive and copy all of the i386 files to your computer (there are a few thousand files - so be patience). Or jusy switch over to your CDROM, in the i386 folder, run the WINNT program. The MSDOS install version.
So lets assume I just booted of a
floppy disk. After the computer is finished booting up I would see just
a black screen with the letter a: (note: the screen may not be
completely blank - there may be other boot info still visible - just
ignore it)
A:\>
This is the Floppy Drive letter. I would then type smartdrv to load smartdrive memory manager. Then I would switch to my CDROM drive. In most cases its D:, but a Win98 boot disk usually creates a virtual drive named D: and renames your CDROM, drive E:
So going by that, I would switch to drive E: by simply typing E: and pushing enter. Then whe need to switch to the folder i386.
At your point your A: should have turned to E:. now you just type CD\i386 and press enter
and it should now look like E:\i386. Then its just a matter of starting the install program, type WINNT and press enter.
Just follow through with the install from there.
more info installing WinXP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html