Windows XP installation problem

[Guest]

I needed to reformat my computer, so I reinstalled a fresh copy of windows xp
on my hard drive. However, once it finished loading some of the files, it
opened the window "welcome to windows xp" and said "lets set up your computer
now" and directed me to click the button that says NEXT. So, I did... and
the computer froze. What I need to know is... since it froze, I obviously
need to restart the computer... i may lose files because i have to press the
restart button on the tower... how do i install the windows xp fully from
this point. I've tried to reformat it 3 times now and it still does the same
thing.

 

[Malke]

I needed to reformat my computer, so I reinstalled a fresh copy of
windows xp
on my hard drive. However, once it finished loading some of the
files, it opened the window "welcome to windows xp" and said "lets set
up your computer
now" and directed me to click the button that says NEXT. So, I did...
and
the computer froze. What I need to know is... since it froze, I
obviously need to restart the computer... i may lose files because i
have to press the restart button on the tower... how do i install the
windows xp fully from
this point. I've tried to reformat it 3 times now and it still does
the same thing.

General information:

There are two ways of installing XP - a clean install where the hard
drive is formatted first and an upgrade install where the new operating
system is installed "on top" of the old operating system. If you are
doing the latter, try a clean install instead. Formatting the drive
will wipe all current data, so you would expect to reinstall programs
from cd and restore data from backups. Be sure all peripherals
(printers, scanners, cameras) are disconnected and any BIOS-level
antivirus is disabled. If you are already doing a clean install and the
installation is failing, you probably have bad hardware. Start with a
RAM test - I like Memtest86 from www.memtest86.com - and let the test
run for an extended time, like overnight (unless you get errors
immediately). If the RAM is good, then run a hard drive diagnostic
utility, which you can get from the drive mftr.'s website.

When you say you've had to "reformat" three times, have you really
reformatted - deleted the Windows partition, created a new one, and
then formatted? If so, then your data is long gone. If not, then
whatever problem caused you to decide to reinstall Windows has not been
solved by the Repair Installation (when you install Windows "on top of
itself").

If you have *not* reformatted and need data on the drive because you
didn't make backups, then slave the drive in a working pc, copy off the
data, and burn to cd-r. If you can't do this yourself, take the machine
to a good local computer repair shop (not a BestBuy or CompUSA type of
store) and have them 1) rescue your data; 2) diagnose the problem; 3)
fix it.

Malke