Hi, Bimmerdan:

It sounds as though you are not deleting the current XP partition during the installation procedure. You might want to review this procedure, especially step 5, for instructions on how to do this.

Obviously, a "formatted" drive cannot boot unless XP is already installed.

Thats what I don't get, I Deleted the partion and then formated the drive. I do have all the files backed up so I just need the drive to boot. :(

I just have one drive since it is not a heavy use computer. When you say post process do you mean during start up?

Thanks for the help

Yep, POST is Power On Self Test (Dell logo, memory count, etc.)

Bimmerdan,

 

You don't have more than 1 drive in the 8300?  If so, then pull the other one too.  If not, then press "F8" during the POST process and choose "disable automatic restart on error" from the boot menu.  If you're system continues to reboot when you're booting the hard drive then most likely you're encountering a blue screen STOP error 0x000007b (hard drive controller driver not for this system). 

 

Make sure you have the latest BIOS for the 8300 here as well.

I will try it when I get home. Should I try cleaing the NVRAM

It wouldn't hurt...

 

On older systems while in the BIOS press "Caps Lock, Num Lock & Scroll Lock".  With all 3 lights on, press "Alt + E".  You should hear a beep.  Nvram cleared.

You could try either changing the "boot sequence" to include CD first in the BIOS or by pressing "F12" during POST (Dell Logo) to start the boot menu.  From there you would select CD and be ready to press a key when prompted.

 

Yes, once booted to the CD you would look for the "Press F6 to install driver" when the screen turns blue and starts copying files.  It's pretty quick so don't miss it.  Also, it doesn't really let you know you pressed it in time, so it doesn't hurt to press F6 a couple of times when prompted.

 

If the CD is just plainly not booting then you might want to post here what the drive model and manufacturer is so that we can look to see if a newer firmware has been posted for it.  I think a CDROM from back then would have a floppy-based firmware update utility.  This could cure a booting problem with the CD.

ok ill pull the cd drives. I disabled boot from harddrive and choose to boot from the cd and still get press f1 to retry and f2 to enter setup

 

can I install the driver while on the 2400? her lies the other problem i dont have floppy disks or have a cimputer that runs and even has a drive

When would i hit f6 during the os install??? The problem im really having I cant get the 8300 to boot from the cd. Any suggestions on that?

I did the f8 and it blue screened like you said. What should I do since I cant get it to boot from a cd?

Not really.  Installing to the 2400 would just install the 2400 driver to the drive and generate the same message when put on the 8300.

 

Did you say Cdrom(s)?  Did you try booting the media in both optical drives or just one of them? 

 

I see your dilema.  Well, since the 2400 is down as well, you could always replace the CDROM in the 8300 with the one from the 2400, since you know that the OS installs there.

yes the 8300 has a dvd and cdrw rom should I try swapping the drive over? I have tried both drives even at the same time