Hard Drive problem

[A Casual Fitz]

I'm troubleshooting a computer that was working fine one day and needed a reformat/fresh XP install. On the XP installation I get as far as the point where it copies all the files onto the hard drive and restarts. Then it boots from the CD and goes back to the start where it wants me to reformat again. Usually it just moves right on to the next step (or GUI Setup phase) and starts installing Windows. It's just a cycle of the beginning stages of the installation. Any help is appreciated.

EDIT - Also when I have the Windows disc in it doesn't prompt me to "Press Any Key To Boot From The CD" when it used to do this all the time. Meh!

- Shane

 

[mmc4587]

What were you using to reformat it? This makes a difference.
Sometimes this makes a difference.
Try making sure that the hard-drive is flagged as bootable, from within the formatting program.

Try this. During the windows XP install process, after you have selected "choose where to install winXP," Delete the partition where you want to install windows. Then select this "unformatted space" for you xp install. Windows will ask to format it for you. Try FAT32/NTFS.

Alternatively, mayhaps this is how you have been doing it, in which case I would reccomend, burning a partition editor to a bootable cd. There are lots of open-source (free) options so you don't need to purchase a program like partition magic. You could even use the built in partition editor of any live-linux cd.

I have had windows corrupt my MBR before, during an install and reformatting the disk with a Partition editor fixed it.

 

[corkyg]

When installing XP, the reformat does not leave you with a bootable drive. It leaves you with a bare drive. The system must still boot from the XP CD until such time as it installs the bootable files. Usally the HDD isn't bootable until about the second reboot.

 

[Chosonman]

If you have any other drives attached to you motherboard remove them. Sometimes XP has problems reading the extra drives. Leave only the OS drive attached when you clean install and add the rest after you installed SP2.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Originally posted by: corkyg
When installing XP, the reformat does not leave you with a bootable drive. It leaves you with a bare drive. The system must still boot from the XP CD until such time as it installs the bootable files. Usally the HDD isn't bootable until about the second reboot.

Yeah, I'm just talking about when it boots after reformatting it just goes back into the first process again instead of installing XP like it usually does.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

See OP.

 

[Old Hippie]

I've had quirky things happen like this during installs. If I were you, I'd be wiping the drive with something like DBan.

Good Luck!