problem installing xp

[bryanf445]

alright i have a comp in my room (2.4 ghz 256 mb ram, 30 gb hd)

well the problem is everytime i try and load xp and when i get to the part where i have to choose between the NTFS quick, FAT quick, NTFS, or FAT i choose NTFS quick. i chose NTFS.after it tells me it has to restart. no big problem right? well after that it goes right back to the beginning of the installation where it says "system is testing your hardware " and if i reboot without the disc it says boot disk failure....wtf???

ive even tried disabling the cdrom in the boot sequence and still its messed up

how do i get to the gui part of the installation, no matter what i do it never lets me get to the next part??? what could be the problem???

ive tried 2 differnt harddrives, and both win xp pro and home, and still the same problem!



edit: i jsut tried a quantum fireball 2gb harddrive and it wokred perfectly!!! does that mean the the 20gb and 30gb hds i attempted in the comp dont work??? i mean it showed up whe i turned on the computer and it created partions on the two hds its just it didnt contiune the installations...


all i hope is that my hard drives arent dead....

 

[Shamrock]

Well first of all you chose to do an NTFS quick which performs a format WITHOUT testing the media. If you have the time you shouldn't use QUICK. Let it test the drive.

If in doubt, download the hdd manufacturer's factory diagnostic and do a thorough (advanced) test on the drive.

You SURE you have the jumpers set correctly? Some drives have TWO seperate jumper settings for Master: "Master with Slave" and "Single Master". Jumper it wrong and you could have the problem you're describing. On a modern modo I would jumper EVERYTHING as CS to avoid problems.

Hope this helps...

 

[J_Tweedy]

ive got 6 days left on my windows xp home activation- what happens when it runs out? btw, me not being able to activate it is the product of formatting so many times, i have a fully legit legal copy.

 

[Revisedsoul]

ive got 6 days left on my windows xp home activation- what happens when it runs out? btw, me not being able to activate it is the product of formatting so many times, i have a fully legit legal copy.

it logs you out and just has an activation screen everytime you log in

 

[J_Tweedy]

so i can still use it? or no?

 

[poseyjmac]

yes, you can still use it. the timer is just there to scare you! no, you won't be able to log in unless you activate it, if the timer has counted down.

thats one perk of making a custom unattended XP installation. auto-activation

 

[J_Tweedy]

what?? so i can use it but not log in? that doesn't make sense- i can't actually use it if i can't log in.

 

[bryanf445]

umm getting back to my topic....are my hardrives still functional? i mean they show up detected its just that xp wont load on it

 

[PickledGecko]

It tells you that it has to restart in 15 seconds or you can press a button to restart manually? Then when it restarts it boots from the Windows XP CD again?

If thats the case you are either pressing a key when it says "to boot from CD press any key" or you have not got "boot from hard disk" anywhere in your boot order. Easiest thing to do would be to go into BIOS and change "1st boot device" from "CD Drive" to "HDD-0". (Unless your hard disks are SCSI or SATA, in which case, "1st Boot Device" should be set to "SCSI")

 

[duffers20]

If your drives are detected by windows and you make the partitions then they arn't dead. Not sure why the drives didn't load XP properly, only thing I can think of is that if they are SATA drives, then you have to load the drivers for the controller during the xp installation. Also you might not have created the right dos partitions. Are you happy with using your fireball drive as teh main XP drive, or do you still want to try and get XP onto one of your other drives. If you do, then this is the method I always use without fail when I am installing XP.

1) Create a win 98 boot disc with a utility from http://www.bootdisk.com/
2) Start up the pc and set the boot sequence to floppy disc drive --> CD-ROM drive --> HDD
3) Restart with the win98 boot disc and not the xp cd inserted.
4) Run FDISK and delete the current partitions and create a new main dos partition.
5) Exit FDISK and run FORMAT to format the drive.
6) Restart the pc and keep the win98 disc in and leave the xp disc for now.
7) Run smartdrv if you have it on teh bootdisc.
8) Insert the xp cd and goto the i386 folder on the cd and run "winnt"
9) Follow all teh instructions and when you are asked to take out the cd, do so. Also take out the floppy disc.

Note. If your drive is a SATA drive, you may need to have the drivers for the SATA controller ready on teh floppy disc to use during the XP installion.

Hope this helps!

 

[Asus]

Last time I remember you leave the disk in for the first time booting into windows.

As for activation, Windows won't let you log in after 30days if you don't activate it. You need to call the 1800 number and tell them your key and they will reset and activate it for you.

 

[giant384]

bryan are u saying ur not booting from the cd drive well u have to to install the OS jsut press f10 when u c the motherboard name and click boot from cd drive