can someone please give me a run through of installing windows from msdos. everytime i do i get an error for finishing install. what i am looking for is an order of how to do it...like delpart, format, fdisk...etc. thanks!

when running format, it says "trying to recover allocation unit"....then eventually it goes away. what does that mean? then when format is doen i have some space is bad sectors and i have no idea why? also, when i format, do i run format from A: or from D:?

What version of Windows are you installing?

Is the version you are trying to install an upgrade or is it a full version?

XP pro...full install

If its win98 you may want to have a look at this.

http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/so...ade/inst98.htm

But i doubt its 98.

-T

Just pop the disk in your drive, reboot your system, and the install program will automatically run. Is there a reason why you are trying to install through DOS?

Hi
runswit2guns,
B very clear when asking a question

First u said while trying to format u got a message "trying to recover allocation unit"....This occurs when HDD has got bad sectors and is displayed when formating with Windows 98.

Secondly u said u wanna install Windows XP.

while formatting with Windows XP this message won't b displayed, then why to format HDD with Windows 98 when u wanna install Windows XP

the only boot disk i have is 98...but i am trying to install xp pro...can i not do that?

here is EXACTLY what i am doing...
1) i put in 98 bootdisk(bootdisk.com) which takes me to the A: prompt. i also put delpart on the same disk
2) i run delpart - giving me the option to wipe the hdd/partition - i do that, save changes and restart
3) run same bootdisk again (without cdrom) - i then use fdisk to create a partition on C drive - this ithis is where i get that allocation message, nevertheless, it creates a partition
4) then i put the SAME disk back in,and start the lapop with cdrom support- i go to the E: drive, then run the app "winnt" which goes through and copies files to the computer, however, 6 or 7 files do not read properly and are not copied
5) after that is finished, it restarts the computer WITHOUT bootable disk. setup then reads the copied files to finish installing xp pro - in the blue screen that says windows setup, it loads the copied files until it says "setup is starting windows"
6) it then takes me to the screen where i have to option to either
a) continue installing windows by pressing ENTER
b) repair windows using recovery console, press R
c) to quit setup, press F3
PROBLEM - NO KEYS AT ALL resgister at this point
Am i doing something wrong with the install?

You should be able to. If you have an XP CD. Just boot into it and partition the drive.

-T