Re-installing Windows XP

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I am trying to re-install xp on my pc. I am following a set of instructions from a magazine – but have also referred to info on the net – much the same.
When I boot up on start up I ‘press any key’ when prompted and the pc goes straight to a screen – blue background with ‘Widows set-up’ in top LH corner and then proceeds to load various files – – describing them as it does in a white banner at the foot of the page. This is as per the article but with two steps missing When it is finished loading files, the message in the white banner foot of screen reads ‘Set-up is starting Windows’ but that’s it – it stops there. I get no options. Nor does the pc restart itself – so I am snookered – and puzzled. The drive is already partitioned, by the way, and I have the backups I need

Any ideas please
Whealie

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The blue screen is just a page holder while Windows loads the files it need to run. Then it actually loads Windows and the drivers for the disk, video etc. If it stops you may have the wrong driver for the hard disk or maybe mobo.

Is the XP CD the original one that came with the PC? Using one from a different manufacturer may be a problem.
Is it a standard MS Windows CD?
Do you have a SATA disk or IDE?
Did the PC work OK with XP before the re-load?

cheers, Paul

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Check your windows cd for deep scratches.If the cd in question looks ok then it sounds as your dvd/cd rom player isn’t reading the cd correctly.
Is this a HP or Dell,what type of system is this you are trying to reinstall on?

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You may have a problem with the hard drive. Run a thorough checkdisk from a boot disk with the “r” switch enabled, then try again.

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Thanks for the responses. Let me tell you what I can before I try anything else. The machine is a ‘clone’ pc – ie built by a small local company – now no longer in business. It was state of the art when built – about 7 years ago and has worked well . it still is working fine albeit a bit slow. The hard drive (40g I think) is partitioned with progs on C and data on D
I have bought a new laptop so now thought I would ‘spring clean’ the old pc. The pc came with XP home installed. I have the original disk – ” For distribution with a new PC only” etc etc on it – in pristine condition plus the installation code – all kosher.
A pal reckons that I might need to run a special disk (he has one) to reformat the c drive – Thats about all I can tell you. Any further suggestions will be gratefully received
Whealie

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7 years is a long time for computer hardware, particularly hard drives and CD/DVD ROM drives.

Most CD/DVD ROM drives aren’t much good after 3 or 4 years let alone 7.
Open the case and check all physical connections, like power and data cables to ensure they are properly fitted. Do an
inspection of the main board and clear out the dust that is bound to have built up. [carefully]
Clean the CD/DVD ROM drives lens and swap out hard drive if you are able.

I’m assuming you are fully capable of entering the BIOS without any issue, yes…
Check for USB boot options and try them if they are available.

A pal reckons that I might need to run a special disk (he has one) to reformat the c drive

I seriously doubt any 3rd party formatting tool is gonna make any difference, the Windows XP’s boot CD format option is more than sufficient.
Check your hardware instead. A third party boot CD like BartPE may be of some use.

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As it still works the hardware is OK.
My money is still on a driver, most likely the hard disk controller. Open Device Manager and see what driver the disk controller uses, then hope you have a working floppy to load the driver.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks again chaps. I’m a bit reluctant to start on the hardware at the mo’ because the machine still works.
There has been a development at this end.
If I disregard the magazine instructions and go to my computer to view the boot disk in the drive I get a menu saying – Welcome to XP – and four choices – the first being Install Windows XP.If I choose that, it says – cannot continue as the version I’m installing is earlier than the curent version installed – presumably because I’m on Serv pack 3 (?)
Can I get past this roadblock and should I?

My pal’s disk has a freeware gizmo called ‘kill it’ and it is that that he suggests I use if I want to go down the ‘reformat the hard drive first’ route
Further input will be most welcome.
Whealie

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This is as per the article but with two steps missing When it is finished loading files, the message in the white banner foot of screen reads ‘Set-up is starting Windows’ but that’s it

What are the missing steps you describe in your original post?
There should be an option very early on to hit the “F6″ key to load any drivers that one would need. The only drivers you would need would be for a RAID configuration.

Are you infact actually doing a clean install?
What type of install are you attempting????

The Right Way To Install Windows XP By Tweakhound

format c: /s from a dos style boot disk:

A note for Windows XP Users:
During the installation of XP you’ll be offered the options for formatting your Hard Drive.
There is no need to do it before that. Windows XP is very capable of formatting the drive for you.

In Windows XP: If you need to format the C: Drive to do a clean install, just put the CD in your drive and reboot the machine. It will eventually offer you the option to delete the C: partition and then create a new C: partition, format it, and install on that new partition.

You can also check the make and model of your motherboard to see if you need a driver for the controller, I would doubt that this is the case. Most boards will have this
hard written into them through the bios/controller itself. If you are unsure, there should be a floppy disk that is part of the computer’s original equipment with the appropriate drivers on them.

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I was trying to follow the instructions on the attached pdf. On P 5 – “Re-install…..” is the headline- are the four pics – I get pic one – sort of – I have to be quick to hit ‘any button’ – then it goes to pic 4 and loads various files then halts – as per my original question. I believe it is a ‘clean install’ that I’m doing. Terminology does seem to be a changeable feast. I want to wipe the C drive clean and reinstall from scratch.

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Research your motherboard first to ensure you don’t need an added driver (hard disk controller) at time of load, as PT suggests.
If you do, get it and place it on a floppy disk and have it at the ready.
You can boot from a floppy boot disk and use the fdisk command to format the drive, assuming the XP disk won’t do it. See the above link in post #9 for the download.

I would also suggest looking through Tweakhound’s clean install guide for XP.

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You said reinstall XP. If you want to do that Fred langa wrote the book years ago on Information Week:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897
If you follow this it will leave your installed programs, documents etc untouched but you will have to re-install SP3 and about 90 patches to return to current sate.

If you haven’t reinstalled or done a fresh install in 7 years, you should probably do a fresh install.

If your CD is the correct one (it must be the same CD that you installed XP with 7 years ago) and not scratched you should probably replace your CDROM. Like others have said they don’t last that long. You could also try cleaning the laser with a swab and rubbing alcohl.

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Thanks to all who responded. Much appreciated. I am however no further forward so can we have one more try please.
c
Can we go back to an earlier point, namely:
“If I go to ‘My Computer’ to view the boot disk in the drive I get a menu saying – Welcome to XP – and four choices – the first being Install Windows XP.If I choose that, it says – cannot continue as the version I’m installing is earlier than the current version installed – presumably because I’m on Serv pack 3 (?)
Can I get past this roadblock – ie install the original disk then install the service packs – and should I? How do I get past the roadblock?

Does any one have an answer to this specific question
Whealie

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Sounds like you are opening the boot disk from within an already running Windows installation. This will give you the upgrade option.
You need to boot from the CD – you will get a prompt saying “press any key to boot from CD” if it is successful. Press a key and you should be right to format the disk and start from scratch.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks Paul – but this is where we came in! – see my first post
Cheers
Whealie

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Can you give us the make and model of the PC?

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Is your hard drive a SATA or an IDE drive?
Go into your BIOS set up and check if your hard drive controler is set to SATA or IDE.
If you BIOS has an option to change your hard disk mode from SATA to IDE
change it to IDE then procede with the clean install of XP.

If your Hard drive is a SATA HDD, look through the articles below.

How Do I Install Windows XP On A SATA Hard Drive

Serial ATA (SATA) drives are the latest in the hard drive fashion and, in theory, installing Windows on the drive should prove relatively simple. The problem is that Windows XP doesn’t contain the necessary drivers to allow windows to see the drive so that Windows can install it.

To load Windows XP onto a SATA drive you need to proceed as follows:
1/ Copy the SATA drivers to a floppy disk. These can usually be found on your pc or motherboard’s support disk. Usually these consist of PIDE/SATA Folders and TXTsetup.oem files. Alternatively they may have been supplied on a separate CD that accompanied your SATA drive, assuming you purchased it separately from the pc.

2/ Insert the Windows XP CD (full retail version – you should not need to follow these instructions if your pc came with a recovery disk) into the CD-ROM and Reboot your PC.

3/ Watch carefully as the Windows XP installation progresses and look carefully at the text at the bottom of each screen.

4/ At the Windows Setup Screen (this should be the second screen after installation starts) you should see, at the bottom of the screen, a message saying: “Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver.”

5/ At this point press the F6 button.

6/ When the next screen appears press S to specify an additional device.

7/ Now insert the floppy disk containing the SATA drivers into your floppy drive.

8/ Windows will next ask you to select a driver from the provided list.

9/ Select VIA Serial (or whichever controller your motherboard supports) ATA RAID Controller (Windows XP).

10/ The SATA drivers on your floppy disk should now load.

11/ After the drivers have loaded Windows XP will recognise your SATA hard drive and you can continue installing the Windows XP operating system.

How Windows XP Determines ACPI Compatibility

Clean Install Procedure For XP Pro With Full Graphics
(Pay particular attention to Figure 2)

Almost immediately after Windows setup begins the screen shown to the left will appear. Unless you have the very latest in hardware you probably won’t need to press the F6 key to install and SCSI or RAID driver. However, when XP is first installed it tries to determine what type of BIOS is available on the computer. Newer systems have what is known as Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) capability. Unfortunately, XP doesn’t always recognize a computer BIOS is ACPI capable and doesn’t install the support for ACPI. Pressing F5 at this point allows you to select the proper HAL.

From the Elder Geek:

The Role of the F5 Key and Shutdown Problems
When I first put this page together I meant to include this information. Unfortunately it totally slipped my mind. One of the hazards of being an Elder(ly) Geek, but better late than never. Thanks to reader Glen M. for jogging my memory.

When XP is first installed it tries to determine what type of BIOS is available on the computer. Newer systems have what is known as Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) capability. Unfortunately, XP doesn’t always recognize a computer BIOS is ACPI capable and doesn’t install the support for ACPI. Even more unfortunate is the fact that if ACPI support isn’t determined at the initial install it’s virtually impossible to correct this at a later time short of reinstalling XP over the top of the previous XP installation. To do so requires changing the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL). The chances of successfully changing a HAL after XP has been installed is pretty close to zilch.

Once you drop the CD in the tray and fire up the computer to install XP, the first thing you’ll see at the bottom of the screen is the option to press F6 if you need to install a SCSI or RAID controller. Don’t press F6. Press F5 instead. This will take you to a separate menu of Hardware Abstraction Layer’s where you can choose an appropriate HAL that supports ACPI. The choices will be:

ACPI Multiprocessor PC

ACPI Uniprocessor PC

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC

Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible PC

MPS Uniprocessor PC

MPS Multiprocessor PC

Standard PC

Standard PC with C-Step i486

Other

In the majority of installations the ‘Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC’ HAL is the one you will want to use. A few cautions are also in order:

Obtain and install the latest BIOS for your motherboard before you begin the XP installation.

Equally as important as using the proper HAL on ACPI capable systems, is NOT using it on systems that are not ACPI compatible. The install may complete but the system will almost surely fail to start when it reboots.

There are situations where it is definitely not desirable to use an ACPI HAL even if it is supported by the BIOS. This predominately applies to servers, but to ensure that an ACPI HAL will not be used or automatically detected and used, press F7 instead of F5 as discussed previously.

Considering the number of problems that users have with systems not shutting down completely I wonder why this feature is not prominently mentioned and documented. It could save many headaches, but now you know. A good piece of knowledge to have tucked away for your next XP install.

As a final note, to determine if your computer was detected as being ACPI enabled:

Right click My Computer then click Properties > Hardware > Device Manager.
Expand the entry called Computer.

If the entry is ‘Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC’ you’re all set. If it says ‘Standard PC’ the computer BIOS was not detected as being ACPI capable.

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Final throw of the dice chaps.
The attached pdf shows the steps I am trying to follow. I am following the instructions on p5. Go to p5 – on it you will see the four pics. When I start up I get to pic 4 very quickly (missing pic 2and 3) then varous files are loaded. Then the bar at the bottom of the screen says; “Start up is loading Windows”. But then nothing happens. It just stops there – I left it for an hour – then started this thread.
I’m not a great techy so “go into BIOS” is not something I can do without referring to instructions. However, generally I can follow instructions and have in fact done a clean install on my wife’s laptop about a year ago.No problems – but then the laptop did what the instructions said it would!
I’m sorry this thread is still running. I thought the answer would ‘ping’ back to me and that it would be simple. I’ll see what this post brings and if no joy then I suggest we draw a line under this one.
Cheers to all
Whealie

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I would say you have a bad install disk. Even if it is in pristine condition after 7 years it may not be completely readable.

If you are getting the “press any key to boot from CD” message and when you do that, the cd spins up and you get the blue “loading files” screen, you are booting off of the windows install disk. This means that you can forget all the ‘bios’ instructions as they are only to get you to this point.

If the machine was not currently working correctly, I would suspect, ram, hardrive, and motherboard in that order, however, the machine operates normally so we are left with either bad cdrom, incorrect drive controller driver (which I have never seen on a basic desktop) and bad install CD.

Can you borrow an install CD from someone?

I would say that the last thing I would do at this point is “kill” the working system.

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I had a similar problem with a system that I had installed XP on it a number of times without problems.

Suddenly it would hang while installing XP. Somewhere on the net I found the hint that you should disable your USB hardware in the bios. I did this and it worked.
After a full install, I re-enabled the USB hardware and everything worked just fine.

I wish I could give you a technical reason why it works but it does. I have had similar problems on other machines and this seems to do the trick.

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Thanks chaps – two useful lines of enquiry – I’ll keep you posted
Whealie

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Two useful tips – thanks I’ll keep you posted
Cheers
Whealie

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I have tried using a different boot disk – with exactly the same result – so now I need to try the ‘diable USB’ option as suggested by Lary Gon. Can I have a more detailed steer as to how to do this please?
many thanks
Whealie

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Thanks to all who tried to help.

To update you and draw a line under things,On advice from a pal who does computing for a living I eventually wiped the C drive with a prog called ‘killdisk’ the idea being that
my boot disk would be looking for a blank/new drive to load to. So much for the theory – the results were exactly the same as before – and I tried two different boot disks. So at least the problem has changed somewhat! My pal is going to put the pc on the operating table tomorrow. As a contingency I am ordering a skip!

There is a first time for every thing and this is the first time that I’ve asked the oracle (secrets Lounge) and failed to find a solution
Thanks again for your efforts
Signing off
Whealie

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A ps to the thread.
My computer literate pal put me on to an article on the net -from the elderly geek – and it said “when offered the chance to hit F6 hit F5 instead” – perfectly logical!!!!!!! – but it worked and got me to the menu I’d been looking for – Thankd EG whoever and wherever you are.

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BTW, CLiNT had also posted that suggestion from The Elder Geek, in post 17 above. FWIW.

Also BTW, does anybody know of any exceptions to The Elder Geek’s statement that “The chances of successfully changing a HAL after XP has been installed is pretty close to zilch.”?

I’ve got a Core Duo Lenovo X60 Thinkpad that was setup by the previous owner with a bootleg Windows 7. When I fought hard to restore the original WXP Pro (SP3) — without an image backup or any rescue disks, thanks, guy!! — I ended up with only one Core of the Core Duo working. Presumably because I’ve got “Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC” set up, instead of “ACPI Multiprocessor PC”.

I’ve already tried using XPud Linux to substitute-rename the multi-core halmacpi.dll file from the SPFilesi386 folder, for the Hal.dll file in the System32 folder (which is identical to the 1-core halacpi.dll in that folder — no, not the halaacpi.dll file I expected to be identical). But the computer wouldn’t boot Windows afterwards, so I substituted-renamed the files back — successfully, without having to restore from an image. I’m guessing that there’s another file or two that refer to that Hal.dll file that don’t match up, but I can’t find any advice online other than to re-install Windows. Since I still don’t have the “real” Windows install CD for this Core Duo computer, I don’t think that’s a good option.

I feel a bit victimized here, because I’m going to a bunch of extra trouble to be legit, but I’m not being treated (by MS or Lenovo/IBM) as a valued customer. (I must have gotten at least 5 or 6 “You’re a pirate!” error messages while I was trying to restore the computer to its original legitimate OS!)

Any advice would be welcome.

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