REINSTALL XP HOME - THis is a good one

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Hi folks i got a good one that i've stumped about twenty techs on. Ok I'll
start at the beginning.

I upgraded to Vista Ultimate RC2 back in Dec after i got a copy from my
office. I then decided i no longer needed my old XP home installation files
in the windows.old folder anymore as i required more space on that drive. So
it's just vista, and that was fine. Then one day i required some applications
and they no longer ran in Vista, so i decided ok to wipe out RC2 since i had
my Home Premium disc from work by then. So I went to just perform a clean
install of XP Home by formatting the drive during install and just going
through as normal, and this is where the fun started.

It ran through the initial setup where is copied my files, then on the
reboot i always got this error....operating system error.
That's all it said, no more info than that.

So after running through the install twice more and receiving the same error
i decided to try something else. I have an XP Pro disc but do not have a key,
as i was just curious i threw that in and the install went through without
error. So i partitioned my drive and threw home premium on the second
partition. 30 days later i was locked out as i have no Pro key but only my
home key. So i attempted the install again, this time with a new hard drive
and a brand spanking new copy of XP Home i received from my other job.
.....again...no dice.

I get to the first boot and always get the error from hell.

So XP Pro install is fine, XP home...no dice....
So...back again i reinstalled a 80GB hard drive that had nothing but my junk
files on it. I formatted SIX TIMES and then loaded xp home disc....ERROR.
I then installed Vista Home Premium which went fine and said i hate you XP
HOME.

However i still have the disc and want to know why it won't install on my
machine. I have since flashed my BIOS in case Vista left some sort of
footprint on there...i have not tried it again out of sheer frustration but
if someone could at least popint me in the right direction to fix this it
would be GREATLY appreciated. I need XP Home at home on my machine for work
related stuff.

Assistance please!
 
During setup from XP Home let it delete all the partitions from the HD, then
recreate them with XP Home, format and install. All should be well again.

o.
 
Hehe prolly shoulda have mentioned i've tried that. I have deleted all
partitions and wiped out all traces of Vista on my 60 GB drive. I then
created one new partition, for my install and I still can't get past first
boot. Error loading operating system. Sorry i can't be more specific with the
error but that's all i get.

I will run through it agian tonight though. I have Vista Home Premium
working great on the 80GB drive so i'll just pull it out and put in the 60
and try the format and partition and install again. Thanks for your input.
 
You cannot select or format a hard disk partition when you try to install Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927520/en-us

How to install Windows Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918884/en-us

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

Hi folks i got a good one that i've stumped about twenty techs on. Ok I'll
start at the beginning.

I upgraded to Vista Ultimate RC2 back in Dec after i got a copy from my
office. I then decided i no longer needed my old XP home installation files
in the windows.old folder anymore as i required more space on that drive. So
it's just vista, and that was fine. Then one day i required some applications
and they no longer ran in Vista, so i decided ok to wipe out RC2 since i had
my Home Premium disc from work by then. So I went to just perform a clean
install of XP Home by formatting the drive during install and just going
through as normal, and this is where the fun started.

It ran through the initial setup where is copied my files, then on the
reboot i always got this error....operating system error.
That's all it said, no more info than that.

So after running through the install twice more and receiving the same error
i decided to try something else. I have an XP Pro disc but do not have a key,
as i was just curious i threw that in and the install went through without
error. So i partitioned my drive and threw home premium on the second
partition. 30 days later i was locked out as i have no Pro key but only my
home key. So i attempted the install again, this time with a new hard drive
and a brand spanking new copy of XP Home i received from my other job.
.....again...no dice.

I get to the first boot and always get the error from hell.

So XP Pro install is fine, XP home...no dice....
So...back again i reinstalled a 80GB hard drive that had nothing but my junk
files on it. I formatted SIX TIMES and then loaded xp home disc....ERROR.
I then installed Vista Home Premium which went fine and said i hate you XP
HOME.

However i still have the disc and want to know why it won't install on my
machine. I have since flashed my BIOS in case Vista left some sort of
footprint on there...i have not tried it again out of sheer frustration but
if someone could at least popint me in the right direction to fix this it
would be GREATLY appreciated. I need XP Home at home on my machine for work
related stuff.

Assistance please!
 
What?
I installed Vista fine I'm having problems installing XP Home BECAUSE of
Vista. I worked as a tech support agent for Vista so unfortunately calling
Vista tech support is moot in this case, because as i said i have stumped
every tech i work with all the way up to the escalation desks.

The partition is fine, the drive is not a dynamic disk, i'm using NTFS,
cables are seated correctly, the BIOS has been flashed and I installed the
brand new updates for it. Drivers for the Hard disk controller are the newest
available. I don't need to check the logs on my Vista install it's working
fine, no problemo. I just want XP home on my secondary hard drive that i will
physically remove and install as need be. I'm only gonna use it about once a
month hence this is my best option since i filled all my IDE connections full
at the moment. I'm using a secondary 200GB drive for storage and the 80GB
drive for vista. I'll pull the 80 and put in the 60 for xp home...


So yeah...i need help with the XP Home install...i have installed it on this
system a hundred times before, i only had this problem after i initially
installed Vista 4 months ago. Thanks again.
 
I would agree that Carey gave you the best advice. Having gone through some
of this myself and having a number of unexplained - will not install -
issues, here's what I did and later found - why.

I have a Win98 boot disk with the FDISK version on it that works for >67Gb
drives. If you don't have the Win98/XP files to make a boot disc, go to
www.bootdisk.com and you can find them there along with the FDISK routine.
Make the floppy (or a CD) and boot to DOS using these files.

FDISK the drive you're having a problem with using the one you downloaded
and partition the drive. Do not format the drive. When you boot-up using
Vista, you will then format the drive.

Here's what "we" (Samsung, Asus and Nvidia) surmised happened. The Samsung
drive was factory partitioned using an overlay they place on this particular
line of drives (300Gb). Even though I removed the partition and reformatted
in both WinXP and Vista - no operating system would load on that drive.

I could use the drive for data storage and it worked perfectly but never
would get thru a OS install. The FDISK (for greater than 67Gb drives) wipes
out the factory partition overlay that was installed. Samsung said these
were recently introduced drives and had not received any complaints on
them - yet.

They and Nvidia both mocked up my drive setup. Nvidia did not have the exact
same drive available and the OS loaded fine. This confirmed it was not an
nForce 4 driver issue for the disc controller. Samsung didn't have my
motherboard but obviously had the drive and confirmed what I was seeing.
The FDISK trick was actually brought up by the tech at Nvidia. Over the
course of about 3 days, all three companies worked to solve this problem and
I did not just get lip service - I got damn good tech support and follow-up
which surprised the hell out of me.

Now if you've had twenty tech's telling you things to do - certainly someone
should have mentioned this possibility but if not - give it a shot.
Minimize your system and remove everything not needed to get the system to
boot is another good troubleshooting approach. Yeah - everybody says they
did it already - try it this time and do all the steps at once - not one at
a time. You'll need the minimum components:

Power supply
mouse - PS2 wired (borrow one if you don't have one)
keyboard - PS2 wired (borrow one if you don't have one)
motherboard
1 stick of memory installed and properly seated
video card or on-board video
floppy - optional but handy
CD/DVD drive - only one connected
one hard drive - the one you're working with is all you want connected and
check the cable connections

BIOS settings - factory defaults and then turn off any features not being
used - USB, FireWire, RS232, LPT ports.

If your motherboard has LED's for diagnostic codes - be sure the LED's light
up according to the manual for - no errors. If no LED's - listen for beep
codes as per the manual.

Now with a minimum basic system you should be able to isolate the problem.
Do not forget that cables can cause lot's of aggravation so check for kinks,
not fully seated connectors and have a known good substitute to try just for
giggles.

Bob S.
 
velamint said:
Hi folks i got a good one that i've stumped about twenty techs on. Ok
I'll start at the beginning.

I upgraded to Vista Ultimate RC2 back in Dec after i got a copy from
my office. I then decided i no longer needed my old XP home
installation files in the windows.old folder anymore as i required
more space on that drive. So it's just vista, and that was fine. Then
one day i required some applications and they no longer ran in Vista,
so i decided ok to wipe out RC2 since i had my Home Premium disc from
work by then. So I went to just perform a clean install of XP Home by
formatting the drive during install and just going through as normal,
and this is where the fun started.

It ran through the initial setup where is copied my files, then on the
reboot i always got this error....operating system error.
That's all it said, no more info than that.

So after running through the install twice more and receiving the
same error i decided to try something else. I have an XP Pro disc but
do not have a key, as i was just curious i threw that in and the
install went through without error. So i partitioned my drive and
threw home premium on the second partition. 30 days later i was
locked out as i have no Pro key but only my home key. So i attempted
the install again, this time with a new hard drive and a brand
spanking new copy of XP Home i received from my other job.
....again...no dice.

I get to the first boot and always get the error from hell.

So XP Pro install is fine, XP home...no dice....
So...back again i reinstalled a 80GB hard drive that had nothing but
my junk files on it. I formatted SIX TIMES and then loaded xp home
disc....ERROR.
I then installed Vista Home Premium which went fine and said i hate
you XP HOME.

However i still have the disc and want to know why it won't install
on my machine. I have since flashed my BIOS in case Vista left some
sort of footprint on there...i have not tried it again out of sheer
frustration but if someone could at least popint me in the right
direction to fix this it would be GREATLY appreciated. I need XP Home
at home on my machine for work related stuff.

Assistance please!
Click to expand...
A couple of thoughts came to mind. Are the XP Home OEM versions? If yes,
that might be the issue, especially if they are BIOS locked. Also, even if
the original XP Home is OEM but tied to this PC, if you've made hardware
changes, that could blow the install.

Something else to check, things connected to the PC, especially but not
limited to external hard drives and/or USB flash drives as these things can
halt a Windows installation even if they are not turned on but connected
nonetheless. In other words, I disconnect all peripherals, all external
devices and if the PC is on a network, disconnect it from that even any
external modem, cable, DSL, etc.
 
Then boot from the XP cd and go to the recovery options (cmd option) and run
Fixboot and Fixmbr before the install.

Ko.
 
velamint wrote:
[...]
I will run through it agian tonight though. I have Vista Home Premium
working great on the 80GB drive so i'll just pull it out and put in the 60
and try the format and partition and install again. Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

If you boot Vista, can you see and/or run chkdisk on the XP filesystem
on the other disk?
 
Yep I can boot into Vista and i've run a chkdsk, i have also run a fixboot
and fixmbr from the XP recovery console for the 60 drive....no dice still get
hung after first boot during install. *note the install wouldn't go through
on my 80GB drive either when it was brand spanking new*

As for the other responses, like i said Vista is fine, there is no issue
there at all. I realize this seems like something i should post in an XP
forum but since the problem started when Vista was installed i was just
curious to know if Vista leaves a footprint on my BIOS. Also in response to
another question, no these are not OEM versions of XP HOME. Both discs are
the full discs with the big green binder from MS.

However there is a light on this one.
I updated my BIOs yet again, looks like it somehow didn't take last time. I
was able to flash my current config and got the update in this time. Things
are looking up. I will try the install once again this weekend and let you
guys know how it goes.
A few other things I've done is swap IDE cables, and verify all the hardware
and cables are seated correctly in my system. This is custom system i built
myself.
I might have wanted to add to actual specs so here you go, if anyone can
think of something i haven't tried i'll try it this weekend when i try after
my BIOS update.
Althon 64 -3200 754 socket
MSI k8 NEO platinum board (i know it's old)
2GB RAM
IDE 1 -80GB WD + 200GB Maxtor
IDE 2 - LG DVDRW + Pioneer DVD RW (i pulled it from a duplicator in which i
blew the CPU...oops)
And about a billion peripherals which i will disconnect when i run the
install this weekend.
But definitely gonna try it after my most recent BIOS update...
Thanks so much for you help, much appreciated.


Don said:
velamint wrote:
[...]
I will run through it agian tonight though. I have Vista Home Premium
working great on the 80GB drive so i'll just pull it out and put in the 60
and try the format and partition and install again. Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

If you boot Vista, can you see and/or run chkdisk on the XP filesystem
on the other disk?
Click to expand...
 
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