I reformatted one of my daughters computers and tried to reinstall windows xp. When I change it to cd boot first it says "failure" then "press a to reboot". I have a boot disk for WINDOWS ME but when I change to the D drive and type in setup I get this "application cannot be run in dos mode". I don't know what this means. I tried to download ANOTHER boot disk on my other computer but when I run it I get the message     "c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications".
ANY HELP APPRECIATED.Click on the following:
How do I install Microsoft Windows XPwhat is the make of this pc??and why have you formated it??what problem did you have before?
To start WIN XP  from the CDROM with a boot disk

If you use a win98/me boot disk it will install a virtual drive and push your Cdrom drive letter up one letter

Hard drive no partitions C
Virtual drive (tools)       D
Cdrom drive will be       E

To start XP you need to be in the i386 folder then type winnt   NOT SETUP

E:\cd i386 press enter
Then type winnt

Also, you might want to run smartdrv before you install XP. I know its on the ME CD, it might be on the 98 CD. It will speed up the install of XP.

On the ME cd it in folder win9x. All you do is go to that dir and type smartdrv enter then smartdrv again.

Marty