Do I need a boot disk?

I bought a new 200gb hard drive and will eventually find the time to install it. I plan to keep my current 40 gb hard drive in the computer as well. In the instruction book for the hard drive, among the tools it says I need is listed the operating system CD and boot disk. I have my Windows XP disk. I seem to remember on my old 98 machine making an emergency boot disk on a floppy to use if my machine ever refused to boot up into Windows. How do I do this for XP?

 

Are you planning a new OS install on your new HDD, and then slave out your old HDD?
If so: Set your computer to boot from your CD-ROM drive, boot from your XP CD and it will have all the tools necessary to partition and format your new HDD. In fact the installation wizard will prompt you when the time comes to do so.

Short answer: No you do not need a floppy boot disk; the XP CD is a boot disk.

Andrew

 

AKP's advice is reasonable for most folks and will likely take you all the way without a problem.

I just wanted to stick my 2¢ in and say that I have always kept a good emergency "Quick Boot" disk on hand for all my systems. Even though XP is quite robust, the HD MBR has been known to suffer damage during certain drive manipulations and this boot disk will truly save your bacon in those situations. You can read all about it at http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm and while you're there, you may want to take a look at XXCLONE. I think many others here may find good use for that little freebie.

Good luck with your procedure!