hi there, im pretty new to com but if you can help that will be great. windows xp pro will not boot up on my new hd , the screen goes into ms dos and gives me the c: and a: drive options. what should i type to enter setup? does anyone know where i can get a bootdisk that will start windows up. i only have a: drive, no cd writer. thanks

If you don't have at least a CD ROM drive, you've got a problem!

To install XP, you need to boot from the XP install CD. You may need to change the bios settings to boot from CD ROM drive first in order to do this. Your machine may display which key(s) you have to press to access settings (think a lot of compaqs use F10 key). Once machine has booted from XP install CD, just answer the questions and follow instructions - though compaqs are notoriously 'difficult' machines, so you may encounter other problems on the way.

Post back if you need more - this site may be helpful - http://www.windowsreinstall.com/