XP Install Problems...all components new...HELP!!

[hkshtr]

Ok, long story short...building new comp (my first build), slapped it together no problem. Its a athlon xp 2200, Abit NF7-M board, WD 80g hd, and Lite-on cd-rw. Partitioned and formatted HD using a 98 boot disk, and installed the cd rom drivers from Lite-On. Well it said "Install Successfully", which I took to mean the drivers were good to go.

So, onto the problem. If I boot w/o the startup disk in, it runs for a minute, and these are the last prompts that display on the screen:

D:\>REM...by HiSpeed Cd-rom drive installation program
D:\>D:mscdex.exe /D:mscd000
Invalid Drive Specification

At this point it won't load anything or recognize any of the drives, which doesn't surprise me since there's no OS. If I startup WITH the boot disk in it brings me to the menu where you can select to boot with or without CD-rom support. I hit with cd (XP install disk), and after it gets done booting it drops me at the standard a: prompt. I flipped it to E: and it can read the drive fine when I hit e:/dir. So I tried...

E:/setup.exe
Program cannot run in DOS mode

So how do I install XP at this point? I think I have the HD setup, all the drivers installed that I need at this point, so what am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help

[Statica]

You have to go to BIOS and set your CD as your first boot device. Then insert your XP CD into that Drive - remove the win98 bootdisk.

XP CD is bootable, and must be used.

[Statica]

Addendum: you do not need stuff like MSCDEX & CD drivers etc etc

Further note: you shouldnt even need to partition or format any drive with any OS other than XP.

[hkshtr]

That did it. Thanks

[rice&noodles]

it doesn't apply to u hkshtr but i found some especially older cd-rom drives (maybe pre-1995 or 1996) don't work for cd-rom booting up.

if u want to u CAN install winxp from the command prompt; dont type in setup.exe; go to the e:\i386 directory then type in 'winnt'