Ok, here's the deal: I think I know what to do but am not sure. I deleted a hardrive completely using fdsk. I didn't make a boot disk. I have a windows disk that I want to install on the drive. I know the drive is good. I recieve a message on boot 'Missing operating system'. I know that's because I deleted it. I can't get the windows intallation cd to even boot up to use fdsk again or anything. That's because I have no operating system to detect it. I know my bios recognizes the C drive and I already set it to boot from cd. It is setup exactly right. The only thing I need to know is: Do I need a dosboot disk in able to get the windows cd to work? Does a dosboot disk allow me to use dos? If so can I then use other dos tools to repartion my drive with the necessory dos partions? How do I create a main dos partion with fdsk if I deleted the operating system? I havn't tried a dos boot disk yet, however, I have a program to create one. It's just that I lack a functional computer with a floppy drive. SORRY SO LENGTHY I DO THIS TO AVOID REPLIES I DON'T NEED.

In the bios/cmos have you set the first boot device to be the CD? (not just to detect the hard disk!) If your installation disk is proper it should then boot from that (it may be worth turning off the hard disk as a boot device ) as you probably have to press the Y key within a time frame and it may be too quick...

yes, you need to put the cd before the hard disk in the BIOS boot order

windows ME and up can boot from the CD provided your drive supports it (nearly all post 2000 pcs do)

Dont use a DOS disk with NT based systems like XP. It wont work. IF you need floppies you can download the (9?) from microsoft for XP

hi dark,if you're using a bootable cd no need to use bootable dos disk