How To Install Fresh Windows XP With Boot Disk or CD

Restart The Computer and Boot From BootDisk or BootCD:

If you are done with making your boot cd or boot disk, you can restart your computer. While your computer is restarting, press Esc OR F5 button to select computer boot order. If you made a boot floppy in the step #1, select removable disk/floppy drive as your boot source. If you created XP boot CD, select CD-ROM as your boot source.

After computer boot from Windows 98 boot floppy, you can choose option#1(boot with CD-ROM support) from the Windows 98 boot option. It will install necessary files and drive so that you can run DOS commands as well as install Windows XP from CD-ROM.

Delete the existing partition or format the hard disk:

If you are installing operating system on a brand new computer (on new hard disk), you need to create hard disk partition first. On the other hand, if you want a fresh Windows XP installation on a computer that already have a operating system, you can delete the old hard disk partition and create a new one with Windows 98 boot floppy (I assume you know how to partition and format HDD using 98 boot disk otherwise read this “How to Format A Hard Drive“). Once you create new hard disk partition, you need to format the hard disk. Keep in mind that Windows XP hard disk has to be formated using NTFS file system, whereas Windows 98 uses FAT file system. So, if you use Windows 98 boot floppy to format the HDD, you might need to format it again with XP installtion CD. Because XP installation CD will not recognize the file system (you may skip the formating part with Windows 98 floppy).

If you are using a XP boot CD go to next step.

Select a Hard Disk Partition to Install Windows XP:

If you are using windows 98 boot floppy, you need to run the Windows XP cd from DOS. The file you have to run in order to initiate Windows XP installation from XP installation cd is WINNT.EXE, which is inside I386 folder in your XP CD.

D:\I386\WINNT.EXE

Note: Your CD-ROM drive letter can be different (could be E:\ or F:\ or G:\ depending on your hard disk partition) than mine.

If you command to run the above file successfully, Windows XP installation process will start in no time. It will ask you to select a partition to install Windows XP or format a partition if you haven’t done it already.If you are using a XP boot CD, it is little bit easier. After you load the XP boot CD, it will ask you to format your hard disk. If you already have a operating system on the hard drive, you will see option to delete the current partition, format HDD with NTFS file system and install a fresh copy of Windows XP on selected partition of your HDD. I do not prefer overwrite an existing operating system. So, i would delete the current partition and reformat the hard disk and install a new copy of windows XP.

Let the Windows XP Install:

After copying the necessary files for XP installation process, the system will restart automatically (It will show a notice that “Windows will restart within 15 seconds automatically or press enter to reboot”). Before your computer reboot again, take out the XP CD or boot floppy. After the computer reboot, you should see the Windows XP installation screen. Put your XP installation CD back to CD-ROM again and sit back untill XP installation process ask you few setup questions like Language selection, enter XP CD serial number, user name and so on.

By The Way, While i was writing the article and installing my Clean Windows XP on my computer, i found the following article was very helpful. So, feel free to read it too.

XP Clean Install by Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Micheal Stevens.