Xp-home floppy bootup problem

I just bought a new hard drive for an older computer. I want to install windows home Xp on it I have the CD and key; however the CD drive isn't automatically recognized as something to check for a boot disk. So I downloaded WinXP_EN_HOM_BF.exe from microsoft which when run makes 6 floppy disks to use. I only had 1 handy so I kept reusing the same disk. the installation and formating took place but it got to 100% then gave me: The following value in the .sif file used by setup is corrupted or missing:
Value 0 on the line in section (SourceDiskFiles) with key "SP1.cab"
Setup cannot continue to quit setup press f3 (only available option)

I'm wondering if I should just try to reinstall using the hot potato floppy disk method (reusing same one for all 6 disks) or DL something else to get this up and running? humm also just thought is there a file I can use on the Xp home disk that will divide well into floppys in case the problem is with the microsoft download?

Ty in advance
-Aktino

 

Have you tried changing the BIOS settings to boot from CD? Try F1 or F2 immediately after starting the computer before the Windows splash screen to enter BIOS. Look for Boot Order and move CD up to first position then HD second.

 

Easy fix ty, oddly enough on mine you hold delete to get to BIOS.
Got in and reinstalling w/ the CD hopefully that's all the help I'll need.

 

I hope you were able to finish the install. I should have said the Boot Order should be Floppy-->CD-->HD for your machine. If you didn't do it this way you may want to change it so that your machine follows the standard order. [My daily machine doesn't have a floppy and I just skipped over it in my mind )

There's quite a list of access keystrokes I just picked a couple of common ones. Glad you found it! Since you were resourceful enough to find/try the 6 floppy startup method I guessed you'd have little trouble getting into BIOS.

 

Just for the record.....Floppy Disks are not dead.

The PC makers, wanting to build PC's for as little as possible have stopped installing the little floppy drive in new PC's, but it amazes me how many mobo's in those computers still have a floppy disk drive port on them.

Even on the little "Mini's" that have no room for a floppy drive, an external USB Floppy Drive works great!

I use my floppy drive almost every day and I go thru at least a hundred floppy disks a year.

"Long Live the Floppy Disk" !!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Shadow :cool

 

If I had a dime for every floppy that I pulled out of my not so ideal storage drawer that was unreadable I could buy...well I could buy a new box of floppy disks

They seem rather unreliable to me for long term storage but I admit I have an new unused floppy drive available for a rainy day.

Happy Holidays Shadow!

 

Back in the day, people were storing all sorts of valuable data on floppy disks, going way back to the days of the 8" disk. (remember those?)

But I always told my customers to NEVER rely on just one disk for that valuable info and for storage purposes. Critical data should always be written to multiple disks and a disk used for archival storage should be refreshed (re-written) at least every couple of months.

Some brands of floppy disks were famous for just "Forgetting" what was written to them. "Elephant" and "Nashua" were horrible for that. The softer the emulsion on the disk, the faster they would 'Forget'.

Years ago, I was the only one around that re-aligned and serviced floppy disk drives. Today, that's a lost art.
I made a small fortune, re-aligning the Commodore 1541 disk drives and installing my own patented Quiet Stop to keep the drives from going out of alignment again.
Ah,,,,the good ol' days!

As floppy disks age, they finally reach a point where they can no longer be formatted. I have absolutely NO problem dropping those disks in the circular file. I buy replacement floppies, 50 at a time.

Cheers Mates!
Shadow :cool