If you have a working windows xp cd, then it will have boot support on it.

The problem you're having is that your BIOS boot is probably set to 3.5" drive or Hard drive before the cd rom.

What you're going to have to do is to go into your motherboard BIOS (not physically) and change the boot startup settings. Depending on the type of motherboard you have (see your manual or try F2 / DEL / F10 / F12) when the computer is starting up, it will tell you to press a key for setup. Once you get into that, look for Device startup order. All you have to do is move the cd/dvd rom to the top (1st) and you're good to go (make sure you save the settings before you exit.

Put in your windows xp disk and reboot the pc and you should get teh "PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD ROM...." or some crap like that.

I hope this is helpful

I know, iI already did that, and it booted fine from the cd, but it just starts the install, which if also fine. But I want to format first, how do I do that, that was my question... There is no option to format in the cd bootup thing, is there?

http://www.theeldergeek.com/create_m...artup_disk.htm

I could possibly use that, right? Just copy over format.exe as well...

OK, tried that, but it says format.com cannot be run in dos mode... wtf??
Need some help here guys... when I boot from the cd, the installation starts. it gives me three options. 1 install xp, 2 repair xp with ASR, 3 quit. there is nothing about formatting...

there's one on bootdisk.com but it's $4 to access it...
http://www.bootdisk.com/popfiles.htm

the one you want is near the bottom.

I dont want to pay for anything... there must be a simple solution... Tried a win98 startup disk, but that didnt work either, it doesnt support NTFS...

What now?

The windows xp boot disk has a built in format option right before it installs windows

OK, thanks. Ill try that.

When you get to the screen where you choose the partition to install to, delete the existing partition then create a new one in it's place and choose to install to that. The partition will be formatted as part of the installation.