Help installing XP

I'm tring to install windows xp on an old compaq presario. Here is the machine's stats:

333 mhz AMD processor
128 MB ram
6 GB hard drive

The xp cd I have is not bootable for some reason. So I downloaded the 6 floppy set from MS website. I boot up with the 6 floppies, format the hd and then install xp from the cd. Once everything is installed, when I try to boot i get a black screen that just says operating system not found. I put this harddrive on another pc so I could see what was on it and there is about 500 MB of windows stuff on it. So I know that it installed from the cd so why the hell can't the pc find the operating system ?

 

The minimum install of XP takes up a whole lot more space than 500Mb. Can't remember what the default size actually is but something over 750Mb?

You realize that with a 333Mhz processor and 128Mb of RAM your running horribly close to the minimum requirements to run XP, so don't expect anything too fast! (W2k may be a better choice on your hardware?)

As for your problem, well you could have a hardware incompatibility with XP so check that all your HW is OK including the motherboard and that it's BIOS version is OK.
Remove ALL external hardware and internal cards except the Graphics card Keyboard and mouse and try again.

If you can't boot from the XP CD with your PC you can always use a Windows 98 startup disk to load default CD boot drivers and access the XP disk that way. Don't use a Windows ME startup disk though!

 

there is also a 6 set Floppy Disk set that you can download to boot from floppies to get to the installation

we had to do that wth some old bios chips that would not boot w/o the CD

check google/microsoft for 'em

 

I have an old Compaq as well and they have a small (about 8MB) diagnostic partition at the start of the hard drive.

If it is still there then it will never boot to anything other than the original recovery disk supplied with the computer.

If you boot with a Win 98 startup disk, delete all the partitions, do a Low Level Format and also FDISK /MBR and then install XP you are in with a chance bearing in mind the comments made by Paul about processor and RAM.