[welshy0204]

here's the deal, im close to tears and its xmas eve, but i really need to try and sort this out as soon as possible. Ive wasted about 14 hours of my life at this now (since yesterday)

I need to reinstall xp on a pc, but its been nothing but problematic. It wouldnt install at all on th pc, kept saying it vouldnt find half the files, but it seems to be over that now. Itll now copy all of the files, and get to the point of restarting, but it just boots straight from th cd and starts th installation process all over again. Is this a sign that the hard drive is broken? (th bios detects th hard drive, as does windows installation).

I dunno if this means anything at all, but ive tried setting th pc to boot from th cd drive 1st, then hard drive, and changing it round, but it still just goes straight into the setup. (also it used to say: 'press any key to boot from CD'
if i take the CD out, it just says 'system failiure, insert system disk (or something).

any help greatly appreciated, cos im just gonna lose it in a min
ta and merry xmas
welshy

 

[Old Rich]

Download and run diagnostics from the drive manufacturer to rule out drive failure . . also test your mrmory. The errors would point to memory errors . . the rebooting to the cd would point to drive problems

 

[walleyegator]

Are you trying to install windows from a OEM OS disk from that make of computer
Or a full windows xp
Now the other thing is use your recovery disks for your computer if you have them
Because you cannot use a OEM windows disk from another make of computer I know I tried it and made it worst.I had to purchase recovery disk from a site $35 and fixed the problem real nice

 

[welshy0204]

cheers for th sewift replies guys

its a maxtor drive, so ive ran the maxtor utilities, and on th full scan it's said that the drive is failing, although it will run linux without any problems at all.

Ive also ran th memory test from th linux live cd for 5 hours, and it seems fine.

The xp disks are full xp pro ones. I've tried it with one dis (that i've used before, and also with a further 3 cd's that have al installed in the pastwithout any problems, none of which will work in this case)

could it still be that the hard drive is failing, seeing how as it will run linux no problem, but won't instal windows, or could it be something else?

(p.s. am not entirely sure, but it's just occured to me that it may only be doing this on one pc (an amd3000 one) but ont on my p4 one. As, but two days ago i was able to run both linux and windows on 2 hard drives that have been 'failing' in the amd pc)

cheers again + seasons greatings to y'all
welshy

 

[Frank4d]

What MOBO are you installing it on? And is the Maxtor drive SATA or IDE?

 

[Old Rich]

If the diagnostics say the drive is failing, there is no telling what kind of errors you will see with it. Installing XP stresses all the components muc more than running an existing operating system.

The drive shoudl be replaced

 

[ozrom1e]

If you want to replace the drive an excellent place to look for one is http://www.newegg.com/

 

[crjdriver]

Simpswr is correct. Doing an install stresses components more than just running. Even if you did get xp to install on a failing drive, you would soon have problems. Replace the drive and do the install. This way you will not waste more time

 

[Frank4d]

(p.s. am not entirely sure, but it's just occured to me that it may only be doing this on one pc (an amd3000 one) but ont on my p4 one. As, but two days ago i was able to run both linux and windows on 2 hard drives that have been 'failing' in the amd pc)

Two hard drives don't work in the AMD pc, but do work in the P4? So you could have a bad AMD MOBO, hard drive cable, or power supply. In which case if you replace the hard drive, it may not work either.

Maybe put the drive in the P4 machine and run the Maxtor utility again.

 

[walleyegator]

Frank4d is right on
Try the same hard drive as a slave in your p4 and see if it says it is failing because if it does not then it could be your mb on your other system
This is where you are hoping it is the hard drive failing and not the mb
Hard drive are easy to replace but a pain to change mb