I'm kinda new at this, so pardon me if this is a stupid question but i don't get something. I'm trying to install winxp on a new PARTITION, which i am attempting to create. But first I'm sposed to have a boot floppy. I do. As FAR as I can tell it's a worthless endeavor to have one though. I thought the purpose of a boot disk was to be able to actually BOOT from it. All it does (and i have several that do the same THING) is take me to an A:.  From there I type "c:, d:, e: whatever:", it says "Invalid drive specification. I type "win", it says "Bad command or file name".  Nothing I've tried gets windows up so what's the point? (It boots up fine without a boot floppy, I'm just trying to be prepared). dir c: doesn't help. The only "dir" I can see is "A". That really helps. I'd really appreciate some advice.The boot floppy is doing exactly what it's supposed to do.   It "boots" the computer to A:>

Click on the following:
How do I install Microsoft Windows XPXPEER....Further to the info that Computer Commando has given you ....

What you may not understand is that when you format your hard drive .......all info on that drive is wiped out .....gone ...... So what the boot disk does is give you a way to be able to install your operating system onto the hard drive ......
So whats on a boot disk.......

There are several small DOS files
There .....are some basic cd drivers so the cd drive will function ..
There should be a file on it called FDISK .....this will enable you to create or remove partitions as well as display those partitions .
There will also be a file called FORMAT .......

So you might do well to do a google for ...... What is a boot disk ......and see how MUCH info is there for the taking ...

Hope this helps

dl65  Thank you. I took both your ADVICES. They were both quite helpful. Now I have new question. From reading the "How do I install Windows XP tutorial", I gather you can partition from the XP setup cd. Is that right? I've been trying to do it with FIPS. It has worked for me in the past but not having much luck with it this time. But if XP cd allows you to partition then that would be great. I have Win98, was trying to upgrade from that (tried 7 times!) but always fails (for different reasons every time). So, decided to go with new installation on new partition. Sorry, this is too long. Basically, my question is about splitting the partition with the xp cd. Thanks for your help.I believe that WinXP will only partition on a clean install, to a freshly formatted hard drive.  If you wish to add, remove, or merge partitions after windows is installed, try Partition Magic.  http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/