Problems partioning XP disk

["Eric Dickner" <spam08@javagate.mv.com>]

Hello All.

Starting right off the bat in the set of instructions for installing on an
existing disk running Windows I have a problem.  Section 3.6.1.1 tells you
to create a bootable floppy with the "sys a:" command, something that I have
done in the past on older versions of Windows but apparently does not work
now:

C:\>sys a:
'sys' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Using an older system disk made in the past with the "fips" tool on it,
again as section 3.6.1.1 tells you to do, will not work either; the system
will not boot into DOS.  XP has a disk management tool of its own but I
don't trust it.  For one thing it tells me that the size of my disk is the
amount that is filled an that I have zero free bytes....  I don't want any
part of it.

What do we do for a "lossless" XP install?

Sincerely,

Eric Dickner