Win XP Home Install

joekat,

Welcome to Geeks to go !

Sounds like the computer is booting from the installation disk on restart, be sure to remove the disk and reboot so it boots from the "C" drive.

Hope that helps.

zep516

Is your cd a retail version or an OEM made specially for your Dell pc.

If it is a retail the procedure it usually works like this, when you boot from the cd the first time you should see a message saying something like press any key to boot from cd after the initial files copied to your ram it will ask you where you want to install XP then you format or setup the partition (usually c:) your XP installation will be on and after it installs the files required for your installation and then it reboots.

After it reboots you should not touch anything and you should boot from hard drive (C:) and your installation continues (it should not go dirsctly to a blue screen but to a black screen of XP with the little bar moving under it and after a couple of seconds you enter you installation menus.

If you never see the message press any key to boot from cd it might be that it automatically boots from the cd without you having to press any key. To prevent that if this is the case when it reboots after formating your drive you should go into your BIOS first and change your first boot from cd to your hard drive.


If it is a Dell OEM disc then I never used one so can't advise about its procedures for installation.

Hope that helps