Desperate for help installing XP on netbook - Christmas present !!

Austinhead

Austinhead

Austinhead

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Joined
23 Dec 2011
Posts
6
Hi Folks,

I'm really hoping someone on here can help me or offer some advice/suggestions. Basically I have a second hand netbook that I bought for my daughter as a christmas present, i'm having real problems getting a clean install of XP on it.

Background:

Bought off ebay as "for parts of not working".
Booted to bios but not picking up HD
Ordered replacement HD (it's not SATA but PIF ?)
Replaced HD still not picking it up. I reconnected and it was then picked up by BIOS. This lead me to question whether the original one was OK, so I put that back in, and the BIOS picked it up.
Upon boot getting a NTLDR error
Decided rather than trying to fix it, I would just reinstall XP
Created USB boot disk with XP on it
Booted to USB, started install, started failing at 43% saying couldn't find files.
Re-created USB boot disk using a different version of XP incase problem with first one, stated failing at exactly same point.
Contact technical help for the manufacturer, he sent me the iso for the factory restore
Install onto USB, started and finished factory restore - it was a big image (4gb), no error showed but it took 4 hours !, upon reboot again got the NTLDR error.
Recontacted technical support who said they thought it was a motherboard/bios issue - i disagree.
Replaced the HD for the new one, and also replaced memory just incase.
Reattempted the factory restore - program told me that it could't run as probably attempting to restore to the wrong drive/partition (there is no option to change this)
Reattempted the XP installation. It copied all the files this time - great, went to reboot but failed with a HAL error.

Now i'm stuck.

I've never done an install from USB before and I don't have a remote CD drive to run from. Because the HD is not SATA I can't take it out and put it into my HD dock or another laptop to test/copy files onto.

As mentioned, this is meant to be a christmas present for my daughter and at the moment it doesn't work. I'm on the verge of giving up and have run out of ideas so if anyone can offer some help that would be fantastic. I really really really want to be able to give it her for Christmas :)

Any help advice suggestions would be great.

Thanks muchly in advance.
 
What is the drive interface set to in BIOS? Try IDE rather than AHCI or anything else it might be set to.
 
I have already changed the memory just incase and since then (also different HD) it managed to copy all the files but failed after the reboot when it should have started the install.

BIOS is set to IDE with no other options.

Thanks.
 
Having looked again, when i'm using the XP install, I *think* it's trying to use the USB as the installation location - obviously this is not possible. I have played about with the BIOS settings and they don't seem to make any difference.

The BIOS shows the internal HD and the USB stick as hard drives with a priority order, within the boot order I can only choose 1 of these, not both in a different order.
 
"Booted to USB, started install, started failing at 43% saying couldn't find files."

Try re-making the boot device. To me there is a problem with the source not the destination.

What I would do is download Windows 7, Use the Microsoft Boot Utility and see if that installs (You may have a dodgy XP Source of something a long them lines?

Where are you based?
 
Sorry, perhaps i wasn't clear enough - trying to give as much info as possible.

I'm passed the point where it fails at 43% (this was when copying the setup files over). This now goes through and the netbook reboots, I then have to select the next option to continue windows setup, and then get the hal error - but, I think this is because it's trying to continue using USB to install TO, not the HD.

I'm now part way through using another tool to create the USB bootable XP installer so will see how that goes, but i'm tempted to get the windows 7 one.

Is the MS boot utility on the windows 7 disk ?

I'm in Cheshire BTW.

Thanks.
 
Thanks for the link. Am hoping I won't need it.

Progress has been made, i've recreated the USB using a different program and have managed to get to the installation - currently at the point of altering the regional and language options, i'm feeling a bit more optimistic that it might work, but won't be happy until it's complete.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks for your help so far. Much appreciated.
 
OK i'm up and running, just need to start the tedious task of trying to find drivers for everything :D

For anyone else who might be experiencing the same issue in the future, the program I ended up using to create the USB boot device was WinsetupfromUSB.
 
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