WindowsXP installation stalled

[Emultra]

I tried to install WindowsXP on my new computer, but it just says "Installation complete in 39 minutes" and nothing seems to happen. The minute-counter doesn't go down either.

What's wrong?

 

[spherrod]

Aer you installing from CD? What hardware do you have?

 

[Emultra]

Yes, a CD.

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
A64 3200+
Corsair 1GB RAM
Asus GF 6600GT PCIe
Maxtor 200GB HD

It's brand new. Upon booting it for the first time, I wasn't given a choice to format the hard drive. I inserted the WindowsXP CD and I made two partitions (C = 20GB, D = 180GB) and chose to install on C. Then the installation stuff came and the "39 minutes" thing.

I'm not very experience with this stuff.

 

[Emultra]

Man, it's all messed up. It seems I installed Windows on both C: and D:, but I can't get anywhere...

How do I restart this stuff from the beginning? I want to start clean again with some help.

EDIT: OK, should I format the C drive with FAT or NTSF? What's the difference?

 

[spherrod]

I would format the C partition with NTFS and then try doing a fresh install

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

 

[Emultra]

OK, I am trying to do that now. It still says 39 minutes, though...is it supposed to do that? Will it be done after that duration even if the counter doesn't adjust for the amount of time that has gone by since it started?

I'm on step 4 out of 5 ("Windows is being installed") and there's those green squares flashing at the bottom right, and messages swapping. Don't know if anything real is going on.

 

[spherrod]

The counter should gradually count down during the install process, but from memory it will go from 39 to 23 minutes all of a sudden. If the green squares are still flashing along that's usually a good sign. How long has it said 39 minutes remaining?

 

[Emultra]

The first time around it said it for quite a while. Probably at least 39 minutes, all in all.
I use FAT32 then.

I'll wait and see if there's a difference this time.

EDIT: Still 39. Standing by.

EDIT2: Still 39. Something is probably wrong. It should be able to write to the disk, because I think it has copied files, but yet it gets nowhere.

 

[spherrod]

definitely seems like a problem - have you tried the obvious like cleaning the CD, is it XP Home or Professional? OEM or Retail?

 

[Emultra]

I believe it's Professional. Is OEM when it comes with a computer or is that retail? I haven't thought about that. Is using a CD from another computer prohibited? I don't have my old one anymore.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

You may need to install drivers for your hard drive before installing Windows on it.

 

[spherrod]

Generally it's OEM when it comes with a computer - you could use another CD provided you don't use the same key twice. Do you have any other installation disks (Windows 2k for example) you could test the system with?

What drive are you installing from, CD/DVD? You may want to try installing with only the Video Card, 1 Memory stick and hard drives connected

 

[Emultra]

DVD.

But LoL, I think I've been using something called a "recovery CD" WindowsXP Pro, maybe that was the problem all along?

Also, I wasn't promted to enter a CD key prior to the installation.

 

[spherrod]

Where did you get the Recovery CD from?

 

[Emultra]

That was the only one I could find. It's kind of old.

 

[nweaver]

Lol, you "found" the recovory CD? It's probably from an old comp, and will not work for a fresh install. It's usually tweake to be very hardware specific too. Get a real WinXP cd and try again.

 

[Emultra]

It was just in a drawer somewhere. I'll try to find the real one and go at it again.

Thanks for the help.