this is what I always do during an install see if it helps first I boot using wn98 start up disk...I reformat the drive from dos...then I type fdisk /mbr to clear the master boot record...then I reboot go into the bios and change it to the default settings, except changing the boot process to boot from cd-rom then reboot again this time going into the xp install process...and just follow the screens from there...might seem like a long process but when you install an os might as well get done right the first time. let us know if this helps or maybe some other members can pipe in if i forgot anything.