>You cannot run XP setup from a DOS boot floppy.

Yes you can. Boot off a floppy that is setup to load smartdrive.exe, and,
if necessary, your CDROM DOS drivers. I recommend configuring smartdrive
with a huge cache, one quarter of your RAM, up to 36 megs. If you do not do
this, and use the smartdrive default size, then it can take a very long
time, hours, to transfer the startup files, from your i386 directory to
your C drive. Nobody, including Microsoft, understands why this occurs on
some PCs. Make sure you have at least 216 megabyets of hard drive space
available on your CD drive.

After booting, go to the \I386 directory and type the command  :\winnt .
The XP, or Windows 2000, or NT4 setup will take off.

Here are the switches for the winnt command

WINNT [/S[:]sourcepath] [/T[:]tempdrive] [/I[:]inffile]
       [/O[X]] [/X | [/F] [/C]] [/B] [/U[:scriptfile]]
       [/R[X]:directory] [/E:command]

/S[:]sourcepath
        Specifies the source location of Windows NT files.
        Must be a full path of the form x:\[path] or
        \\server\share[\path].
        The default is the current directory.
/T[:]tempdrive
        Specifies a drive to contain temporary setup files.
        If not specified, Setup will attempt to locate a drive for you.
/I[:]inffile
        Specifies the filename (no path) of the setup information file.
        The default is DOSNET.INF.
/OX    Create boot floppies for CD-ROM installation.
/X     Do not create the Setup boot floppies.
/F     Do not verify files as they are copied to the Setup boot floppies.
/C     Skip free-space check on the Setup boot floppies you provide.
/B     Floppyless operation (requires /s).
/U     Unattended operation and optional script file (requires /s).
/R     Specifies optional directory to be installed.
/RX    Specifies optional directory to be copied.
/E     Specifies command to be executed at the end of GUI setup.


The advantage of installing this way is by copying the I386 directory to
your hard drive and then installing from that folder, you will never again
be asked to insert your windows install CD.

Rode
The NOSPIN Group
http://freepctech.com

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