Hi, I am working on a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop trying to install Windows XP. I ran KillDisk to format the drive. I tried booting from CD at startup with my Win XP disc in (no partition on the hard drive), and the computer wanted to do a network boot. I created a partition using FDisk (Win 98 startup disk), now whenever I try to install it, I get a "Missing Operating System" message. I am booting from CD first with Hard Drive second. It seems like now it's trying to boot from Hard Drive first. I have also tried using the Windows XP startup disks, and when it would get to the 6th disc, a Blue Screen would pop up saying check for viruses, and it wouldn't continue.

I have tried at one time to install Windows 98 on it, but it would get to where it's about 16 mins left and then the computer would freeze.

I am using a Sony USB floppy drive to run the startup disks.

It doesn't matter to me if I have to install another earlier version of Windows first on it in order to install XP.

My Windows XP disc is bootable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Run FDISK again and, first, delete the partition you created. Recreate a partition and define it as Primary. Reboot and run FORMAT C: to format to FAT32. Try to install XP. If successful, format to NTFS.

I re-ran FDISK and created a primary DOS partition... I reformatted that partition so that way it was wiped out. It still won't boot up right. I made new Windows XP startup disks, and when I get to the 6th disk, a BSOD comes up saying to run CHKDSK /f. I have ran SCANDISK on the hard drive and everything checked out fine. I don't know what else to try, starting to run out of ideas.

I am going to try and copy the whole Win XP disc onto the hard drive and see if it will automatically run off of the hard drive to install itself, (not too sure if it will or not).

That's the last idea I have for now. I am going to try and get Win 95 or 98, and see if I can install those, then install XP from that.

Any help I can get would be GREATLY appreciated.

Well, copying the whole disk over to the hard drive didn't work... it just brings up an invalid system disk error whenever I try booting from hard drive this time. I'm starting to hate Dell computers. I've never had a computer give me these types of problems.

HELP!!

Looks like I'm on my own to solve this problem.....Thanks though for giving me directions on things I have already done before I originally posted this.

Caravelle,

We're all volunteers here, and we're also not all in the same time zones. It's not realistic to expect a response as soon as you post. I realize you're frustrated, but you posted 3 times in 12 hours, and seem to expect an instant response. You're more likely to get a response during daytime in the US because we seem to have more active members, so maybe one of our (unpaid) volunteers will be in to help.

Let's see what we have and If I am wrong in any assumption please let me know.

1: A hard disk that was partitioned, partition set as Active and formatted by DOS. If in any doubt please check again in FDISK command and just view what you have on the disk. You should have 1 partition formatted to FAT32.

2: You have a floppy drive connected, which isn't needed any more. Please disconnect it.

3: You have an XP installation CD. Are you sure it's in working condition? Please try to install it on another computer. If it works, stop the installation on the first chance given by pressing F3. This test is very important because it might be that the disk is faulty. No harm will be done to the other computer.

4: You have Windows start up disks. We don't need them.

5: Double check your boot priority in the BIOS. Something doesn't make sense at all. You mentioned in your first post that the computer " wanted to do a network boot" and then you mentioned that it tries to boot from the hard disk. We want CD drive to be first and HD second. If all is set well in the BIOS then either the CD or the CD drive are not working.

Seems the logical way to approach this is the old 'suck it and see' way

Assuming you are reasonably happy to fiddle try a few elimination exercises

As others have said make sure the BOOT sequence is set right in the BIOS

Try the CD....if you don't get "Press any key to boot from CD" then the CD is not booting (you have a partition so it will identify this)

Try the CD on another system to see if it boots...make sure you set that system up to boot from the CD

If it does then the CD drive itself seems suspect

Next...disconnect the hard drive...just remove it from the laptop...CAREFULLY

Try booting again..with no HD it HAS to look at the CD...if it does not boot then you may well suspect the drive itself

You can connect old IDE drives to a desktop system using a cable adapter...all this will do is assure you it is working as installing XP on a different machine and returning the drive to the laptop opens up a while raft of different problems

You need to eliminate hardware failure first {CD drive, CD disk} before you can categorically approach other issues

Looks like a long sloooooow road to resolve this one

]Good Luck

Baudy!