Hi, I have a Dell Latitude C610, 1.2 Ghz, 512 RAM, 30 Gb HD. I had previously XP pro, then I removed it and installed Ubuntu linux. I want now to switch back to windows XP pro but I cant start the Windows XP pro cd. My laptop doesnt have a floppy disk rive, but I have a windows 98 disc which boots fine from CDROM. I have fdisked it first, format and then again fdisk /mbr becauseow the GRUB doest show up anymore and when I try to boot with the Windows XP Pro cd the system complains and say that isnt a valido boot cd.. I ryed to boot with the windows 98 cd and then make smartdrv and then put the windows XP pro in the cdrom and strike setup, but without sucess as a message comes and say Setup will not work in a dos environment. I dont know how i can install win XP Pro.. based on the facts i am realy seeking help. Thanks. Polo

when you formatted with the win98 disk, did you use this command? x:\format c:/s [x] bing your rom drive letter. the 's' switch transfers system files to the c: to make it bootable. in fdisk, did you remove all partitions and reset the c: and make it active??

I am bit confused here and perhaps i can start everything again if you tell me step by step what i have to do pleae... Let me tell what I did so far (I dont know if these are the correct steps...), Before I was using XP that became very slow because of a virus. I took it off and installed ubuntu linux, however i noticed that the linux was lacking some important programs that i use. So I have tryed to install XP with my XP pro cd but the Cd wouldnt go through and the system complaint giving a Grub error message.. I started then again with win 98 cd and gave the command "smartdrv" and gave the comando "Fomat" and the HD started formating. Then i booted again with windows 98 cd and typed "Fdisk" and deleted all linux partitions and created one new DOS partition. I tryed then to boot with xp cd and nothing, just a Grub error message... I went to read a litle bit and fdisked with fdisk /mbr and that Grub went away.

I have formated and fdisked asa you told me ... c appers now with one file command.com but xp cd is not booting at all...

Polo5000 =========================================== "I ryed to boot with the windows 98 cd and then make smartdrv and then put the windows XP pro in the cdrom and strike setup, but without sucess as a message comes and say Setup will not work in a dos environment." So far you did everything correct, but instead of striking Setup you need to type after the Dos Prompt D:\>i386\winnt.exe and hit Enter. This will do the job and install XP in a DOS environment, but in many cases there will be some error messages that could not copy a file etc. The best way would be to get the XP CD to boot, but you said it won't. HDH Peter

If you are trying to install using a factory XP/CD restore disk it will no longer work.

Is your XP cd actually an XP cd, and not some goofy "restore" special CD? Is it a factory made cd and not a copy? Have you checked it by trying to boot it cold in a different machine or two? Also, when you use DOS based (Win98) tools to fdisk and "sys" (format /s) a hard drive, there WILL BE NO CDROM drivers loaded. All you'll have is a "boot" to the hard drive. If that's what's happening, you need to configure CDROM drivers to load at startup. You need to check your "XP" cd It may be a problem with your CDROM drive.