XP pro aborted install now hung

  • Thread starter Thread starter riz2003
  • Start date Start date
R

riz2003

Hi,
I'm having a similar problem with IBM thinkpad.
Accidently used "volume licensing" version for which I
don't have a key and realized I needed to restart the
process. Unfortunately, it's stuck and refuses to restart
in a safe mode or boot off the good CD. It demands the
one for which I have no key and gives a "fatal error" when
I select cancel.

Thanks
Dave
 
Since your reply is not in the thread to which you refer nor is the message
to which you refer quoted, we have no idea of to what your problem is
similar.

Nonetheless, while the XP CD is bootable and you can run format from setup.
since you are unable to run setup, you will need to start with a Windows 9x
boot disk.
Boot with the 9x boot floppy. At the prompt, type fdisk and press enter,
delete the non-dos partition, create a primary dos partition, set it active
and exit.

If it says you have no non-dos partition your system is still fat32, delete
the primary DOS Partition, create a new one, set it active and exit fdisk,
reboot the system with the XP CD in the drive and run setup as follows:

A few screens into the boot process, if you see the message on the boot
screen to "Press any key in order to boot from the CD," do so.

After loading drivers and files, you should be taken to a screen with
the following:

To Setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To Repair a Windows XP Installation using Recovery Console press R.
To Quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

In your case, press ENTER.

Agree to the License agreement by pressing F8.

You will then be taken to a screen with two options.

To repair the selected Windows XP installation press R.
To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing,
press ESC.

This will bring you to a partition map where you
can delete, create and format partitions.
Select the drive you wish to format, delete the partition, then create a new
partition, format as desired and continue with XP installation.


If you don't have a 9x boot disk, visit www.bootdisk.com.
 
Thanks, Michael. I wish I'd taken your signature line to
heart earlier because my last rescue disk was from 2000
with Win95 -- egad. Anyway, it prompted me to restore
CMOS and partition tables, so I did. It then hung, so I
went to the website you suggested, created a boot disk,
ran fdisk, created primary dos partition. Here's where a
laptop stinks because my floppy drive and DVD share the
same drive bay. So I shutdown, install dvd, and it came
up with "missing operating system." I'm a member of MSDN,
so I burned an ISO image of WinXP Home, which should
boot.

Sure appreciate any ideas you could assist with.

Thanks
Dave
 
Yeah, maybe I should take that line out of my sig and open every post with
it.:-)

OK, the old swappable drives trick. Place the DVD drive in the bay, when
the system is booted, you should be able to open the bay, place the XP CD in
the drive, close the drive, shutdown. Place the floppy drive into the bay,
boot the system, do all I previously told you except when you are done, shut
down. Place the DVD drive which should now have XP in the bay, boot the
system, if after a few screens you see a message to hit any key if you wish
to boot from the CD, do so, if not, it should do this on its own since it
cant find the OS on the hard drive but note, the system must be set, in the
system BIOS, to boot from the CD.

That's usually done by placing the CD-ROM drive first in line in the boot
sequence. To get into the BIOS, usually on the first boot screen there is a
message about entering setup and a key to hit in order to do so, hit that
key, navigate around the BIOS until you find the boot sequence, set the
CD-ROM first in line, reboot and it should find your XP bootable CD.

Good luck.
 
Michael,
I can only have either a floppy or a dvd drive in the bay
at one time. And it's only booting off the floppy, not
the dvd. So, I can't do what you're saying in the 1st
step "place dvd drive in the bay" because it won't boot
when I do that: just invalid system drive message. I did
a SYS C: which HELP says transfers the boot to the c:
drive, but with the dvd in the bay, win98 starts and then
asks for the a: again. The a: isn't there because I'm set
up with the dvd. Yes, bios is set for cd-rom booting at
top of the list...

HELP!

Should I just download my 6 bootable xp floppies and be
done with it?
Thanks
Dave
PS - if you want, you can call me collect at 407-673-9089.
 
That's what happens when you "accidentally" pirate software!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
First, don't ever post your phone number.

Second, if you use the 6 boot floppies, you will still need access to a
CD-ROM drive as you will still have to access the XP CD. The floppies only
facilitate starting setup on systems that are unable to boot from the CD-ROM
drive, not for systems that don't have a CD-ROM drive.

The method I described means having to change the boot sequence to
accommodate what you need to do at a given time. Usually, if CD-ROM is
first in line and the floppy is second, if there is no bootable CD in the
CD-ROM drive, the system looks at the floppy. However, in your case, the
CD-ROM won't be there when trying to boot from the floppy. Hence, in order
to start the process of using a 9x boot floppy to clear the old setup, the
floppy has to be first in line. Once you've done that and finished clearing
the old partition, you need to return to the BIOS, place the CD-ROM first in
line and probably remove the floppy from the boot sequence if that option is
available so it only looks at the CD-ROM drive and the hard drive when
booting to begin setup.
 
Yeah but, Crusty, he's trying to do the right thing here.:-)
 
Back
Top