6 3.5inch floppies to install Windows XP

Greg J.

Greg J.

VIP Member
To force the DVD-ROM drive to work and stay on, HOW can I get those magical 6 diskettes to install Windows XP Home Edition upon which, no matter what BIOS settings, the DVD-ROM drive (only disc drive) won't stay on. Connections are NOT a problem. The disc drive works fine, yet I seem to not be doing something right in installing Windows XP with an OFFICAL purchased Windows XP Home boot CD. Please, can you help me? :confused:
 
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Greg J.

Greg J.

VIP Member
Praetor, read this !!!!!!!

They are set-up floppies. Total of 6 floppies. On a working computer, you execute a program which automatically extracts its data to each floppy in a numbered series (boot floppy # 1, asks for # 2 , etc. etc.)
Now you got the floppies, now you work on the blank non-working computer. Now, if you can't boot from a CD, DVD, etc. drive, then you can boot from the floppy drive. Prompt for the ":A" drive in DOS. Insert the first floppy, hit enter to execute. Set-up will begin. Feed it floppies in the order of #'s 1-6. All this data goes to a DOS RAM drive. The data is basically a "DOS-shell" that contain drivers to force your CD drive to work to install the operating system. All modern systems from Windows 95 to Windows XP have this fall-back ability if your disc drive isn't a bootable device. However, anything beyond Windows XP REQUIRES a bootable CD drive. (D*mn Microsoft and their forceful ways of making us build (or buy) new computer systems just to run the future OS codenamed: "Longhorn". For best results when Longhorn is released, you need to have a FULLY 64-bit built system. Even RAM (1 GB recommended for REASONABLE speed for "Longhorn". Micro-crud is starting to annoy me..... :p
Yes, I took the computer to the shop for repair because it is beyond my ability and resources (I don't have equipment for diagnostics.) :cool:
 
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Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
However, anything beyond Windows XP REQUIRES a bootable CD drive. (D*mn Microsoft and their forceful ways of making us build (or buy) new computer systems just to run the future OS codenamed: "Longhorn". For best results when Longhorn is released, you need to have a FULLY 64-bit built system. Even RAM (1 GB recommended for REASONABLE speed for "Longhorn". Micro-crud is starting to annoy me.....
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Uh.... bootable cds are cool dude... i havnt had a floppy drive for almost 4 years now and methinks you're getting anti-MS-crazy with the 1GB point there :p (of course that would be a good thing becuse one way or another it will force prices down)
 
Greg J.

Greg J.

VIP Member
Keep it cool, my comp will be FIXED, chill

Yea, I'm more old-school oriented (1994---------). Hardware seems to be my niche (along with getting rid of spyware, registry crud, and....well....life.... :D
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Yea, I'm more old-school oriented (1994---------).
Click to expand...
Heehee I used to be that way (circa 1992 myself) ... until i had floppy after floppy (after floppy after floppy....) fail on me .... needless to say im not enthused with floppies :p
 
Greg J.

Greg J.

VIP Member
It's fixed, ready, all this cuz CD controller on mobo

The controller on the motherboard for the CD drive was shot. That's why I couldn't boot the disc drive to install the OS. The guys at the shop used some driver floppies to get that drive workin'. Its ready to go. Since this disc drive (only DVD-ROM) can't be controlled, could I get an external CD-ROM drive that is USB (old style)? :confused: ;)
 
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