***CAN'T BOOT FROM WIN XP DISC - UPDATE: DYING PSU TO BLAME!

[Baronz]

Originally posted by: jdwright
Have you considered creating the 6 floppy boot disks as a workaround? I've had to do that on occasion, specifically with some old Dell machines that worked great with 98se. Just a suggestion, and I believe the utility for creating them is a free download. =)

Always fun if you have a couple hours to spare :grin;

 

[brigden]

Update: Still not working...

 

[fredtam]

Two questions.
Does the new drive read CDs when you boot into the old OS?
Can you put that HD into another PC and load windows?

 

[brigden]

Originally posted by: fredtam
Two questions.
Does the new drive read CDs when you boot into the old OS?
Can you put that HD into another PC and load windows?

Yes, when Win ME was installed it did detect the new CD-RW and it did read CDs. There is no point putting the HDD in another PC as the setup is incomplete.

I have currently got the CD-RW as master and the HDD as slave on the primary IDE channel and thus far the installation appears to be working. I expect it to fail and restart half way through. The HDD is probably dying...

 

[fredtam]

I meant throw it in as the slave on another PC and format and install from there just to make sure it is the HD

 

[boomerang]

Partition that drive first. There will be no OS. The system will be forced to boot from CD.

I'd really try to do this with HD as Primary Master and CD as Secondary Slave. That's how you're going to want it afterwards.

 

[brigden]

Once XP had installed and asked for reboot, I turned off the system and switched the jumpers so that the HDD was master and the CD-RW was slave. Windows began to load and then abruptly we received the message, "Setup is being restarted..."

The system restarted and began a cycle of restarting itself after briefly loading Windows XP.

That's it. I'm giving up.

 

[boomerang]

Well if you took my advice I probably messed you up.

But, you took me too literally. You should have changed the jumpers only before starting the entire process. Doing it after the first boot would have been OK too, but let it reboot for the last time and get to the desktop.

If this is what happened take a day off, settle down and try again. This stuff can sometimes be very frustrating. I know, I've come close to throwing things over here on occasion.

If you need to, run out to a local computer store and get a second IDE cable. One cable for the HD and one for the CD-ROM. Best setup you can have for the drives you have.

If I got you all screwed up, I apologize.😱

 

[GregM425]

there is a program that will make you a boot disc to load dos up, so just get that, do a google search for windows xp install boot or something

there used to be a file for it on bootdisk.com but they want you to pay for it now, anyway its out there, its a single floppy.

then just make the floppy and restart and it will bring you to the trusty dos prompt. then just navigate to the I386 folder on your windows cd.

and type: winnt

i think thats it, or winntsetup, anyway youll figure it out

I dont know for sure if home will work, i know pro will.

anyway that should work, sorry I cant offer you better links or anything.

let me know if it works

 

[NWRMidnight]

I have a computer that did the same thing, I tried everything, except what actually worked. In the boot options, I had the choice or CD-Rom, SCSI, Floppy, IDE1, IDE2, IDE3, and IDE4. Anyhow, if I set it to CD-Rom, it would never boot fro mthe CD, but once I set it to the appropriate IDE channel (IDE3 in this case) it boot off the CD-Rom no problem. See if you have this option. Also try Atapi or what ever the name is for it (to tired to rememeber). If all else fells, it sounds goofy but if you only have one hard drive and the CD-RW is your second drive, set it as HDD1 and see if it works. I doubt it, but you never know.

It could also be a defective CD. I've had that happen in the past as well.

Daniel

 

[Overkast]

Is that a Full version of XP or an Upgrade? Is it possible the problem is that it's a full version and you're trying to use it as an upgrade?

You may need to do a complete clean install of XP. This may mean wiping out all the crap you have on your HD tho. I recommend doing this as a last-resort option.

If you DO decide to do it though, then here's my suggestion:


1) Go to BIOS and make sure the CD-ROM is the primary boot device (make it the highest priority boot device in the priority list)

2) Boot up from the XP CD and select "repair current windows installation using command prompt" to get to the DOS environment.

3) At the C:/ prompt, type HELP to find the partition command in the list (I forget what it is at the moment).

4) If the command is PARTITION, then type C:/PARTITION. This should take you to another screen where your HD is listed with it's current partitions.

5) Select the drive partition(s) in the list and hit "D" to delete the partition(s). This will now list the drive as unpartitioned. Once it is unpartitioned, select the same drive and hit "C" to create a new partition

6) Once this is done, go back to the DOS Prompt (by pressing ESC) and at the C:/ prompt type "FORMAT C:" <C:/FORMAT C:> to begin formatting the drive. THIS WILL WIPE ALL DATA ON YOUR HD.

7) Once this is done, type "EXIT" <C:/EXIT> to reboot.

8) On reboot, make sure you boot from the XP CD again.

9) Install Windows XP on your newly formatted HD.

Hopefully this will work for you. Anyone else agree or disagree with my process here? If so, speak now or forever lose his HD! 🙂

 

[brigden]

Thanks for all the replies, but we've narrowed down the problem. Update on first post.