Aqua-Soft Forumshow to install windows xp from dos
How To Install Windows Xp From Dos
Is that a question
I take it you need to now how to execute the setup program.
There are 2 ways.
1. If you have started the system with a Win98 bootable floppy with CD-ROM drivers than after the boot-up switch to your CD-ROM drive. So if your CD drive is D:\ than type D: .
You should now have a prompt D:\
With your XP CD in your CD drive type
cd i386
You should now see the prompt D:\i386
Now that you are inside the i386 folder type winnt.exe
This will start the installer. Just follow the steps.
2. If you copied the i386 folder to your Hard Drive the steps are similar. You need to cd to the i386 folder and then type winnt.exe. Actually you can leave the .exe off and just type winnt. As I said this will launch the installer. Just follow the prompts to continue the install. Be forwarded that if you load XP this way it can take a very long time to install if you do not have smartdrive enabled on your floppy. That’s why they made legit copies of Windows XP bootable. If you have a newer computer say from the last 3 years, you should be able to boot from your XP CD. Now if you got your CD from somewhere you really shouldn't have than you are stuck installing the old slow way.
One more thing. Do not install XP on any system that is not at least a Pentium 2 300MHz or AMD K6 450MHz or better. You are just not going to get the performance you are looking for no matter how much RAM you stick in the system. Trust me I install XP every day as my Job and trying to use it on anything less than a 300MHz system is pure silliness. I have installed it on a custom system that only had a 200MHz CPU but that was just an experiment and it really didn't work to well even with 256mb of RAM.
I hope this helps you out and good luck. 
might not want to forget running 'smartdrv' too
put a copy of 'smartdrv.exe' on your boot floppy, then run it before you install...otherwise, look forward to a 2 hour install.
I think the best way is just to boot from the CD...
You should use Smartdrv
Command goes like: Smartdrv %Cashesizehere% <--- like 8098 (size in KB)
You can download a program from microsoft which creates 6 boot disks and sorts out the need to enable smartdrv, or go here.. http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm