Take a working PC and make a bootable floppy set from the CD. Somewhere buried in the CD file structure you should find a directory labeled something like "bootdisk" or similar. There should be an exe in there...run it and expect to have a few blank floppies sitting around (Win2k uses 4 floppies). Swap the floppies out as prompted, then use those to boot your new system. That should give you enough of an OS to read the CD.

 

I think he said he didn't have a floppy drive in the system that he is trying to get working..

 

Then I suggest he hook up a floppy drive for the basic OS install, then remove it once the CD is readable. Why go about things the hard way...

 

got a floppy and the xp pro disks along with the xp pro cd-rom. i will post any updates as soon as i piece it together again.

 

Assuming he is having issues in regards to getting two IDE devices to work together properly putting the operating system on via floppy disk (I doubt you can even do this with XP but it would be a serious pain in the arse) isn't going to fix the problem.

 

Problem has been diagnosed.

it was a bad HDD and the OS is bad.

returned HDD for another new one
made Linux OS disc and went through install without any problems.


now i'm awaiting the windows XP pro disk and everything should work


The frightened newbie says THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!!!

 

Good work - glad to hear that you are on track (even if my advice got you nowhere!).

 

Congrats!

 

thank you again everyone.

i'll post pics of the working pc when installed later


the pics from inside me car, oh yes. inside the s2k