Cousin having Windows Install problems

[Xirix]

So, the other day I was informed my cousin's computer "Died during a game" just turned off, he's been trying to fix it.. I don't know exactly what he's done, but trying to get Windows back on he's formatted his HDD, but now it won't even let him reinstall Windows XP.

He says he gets to step 8 on : http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

He has no "Press any key to boot from CD" option

Instead he gets
BOOT FROM ATAPI CD ROM:
NO EMULATION

Which after about 10 minutes of idle time, boots from the Windows XP disc anyway.

It gets to Step 8, Then Restarts, And once restarted it either does nothing, or starts the setup again if the disc is in the drive... a horrible loop.

It's a 250gig HDD if that's.. relevant, The boot order in the BIOS is.

CD
Floppy
HDD

This particular HDD has never had windows on it before, I think he gave up on the HDD that originally had windows on it when it crashed.


Sorry if this information isn't useful, my cousin isn't in my town, so I can only reiterate what he tells me.

Thanks

Xirix

 

[lostbear]

sounds to me like the trouble isnt the HD drive. i suspect the CDROM / DVD drive in there maybe be flakey or old. I suggest the following:

1. Put the floppy drive either first or last in the boot order.
2. Change the CDROM over for another one.
3. Boot from a floppy disk with CDROM drivers on it and start the xp installer manually from the cdrom or from harddisk.
4. i have a small feeling that if your xp is either a first edition or SP1 im not sure if 250gb drives were around then - were talking about 5 or 6 years ago here. Use nLite to slipstream sp2 in the XP installation. you can also add in drivers and hotfixes this way and set an unattended setup. saves time!!
5. Format the drive using Gparted - dead easy and its free. its a linux based boot disk that boots into a partitioner much like partition magic only its better.
6. if my hunch about the drive being to big is correct, try dividing into two with gparted. You can merge these back together with gparted and get a full single partion back after install without wrecking you xp install.

Useful links:



install from hard disk / boot floppy

win98 OEM bootdisk (has cdrom drivers already to go)

GParted