Problem installing XP Pro

GazNofx · 25 Mar 2008 at 10:55

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a system off a friend which came pre-installed with an unlicesened copy of XP Pro. Therefore I have bought a licensed copy.

However, upon attempting to install the licensed OS from within Windows, I am asked to do a full instalation as there is no upgrade option. Setup goes through the motions while in Windows, then restarts the computer and enters DOS. Then all that appears is a blue screen with 'Windows Setup' in the corner, and then the system hangs :confused:

Is it that i will need to do a clean install? Though I have problems booting into DOS. There is no floppy drive installed and for some reason the BIOS doesn't recognise my CD-ROM (it does work fine). Can I boot from a USB pen? Where are the necessary setup files?

Many thanks. :cool:

Terrier_Jimlad · 25 Mar 2008 at 11:10

Are you able to boot from the CD-Rom drive once it gets past BIOS?

GazNofx · 25 Mar 2008 at 11:22

No, cannot select the option to boot from CD...

Vonny · 25 Mar 2008 at 16:22

Does the CD show up in the list of drives as you power the PC on?

neil_g · 25 Mar 2008 at 16:28

does it hang on a blue screen with loads of technical info?

if so, my money is on a SATA drive that doesnt have a native windows driver. we get that with some new dell optiplex's so we have to load the driver by hitting F6 to load a RAID driver at setup.

GazNofx · 25 Mar 2008 at 20:16

The blue screen that hangs simply has 'Windows Update' in the corner and nothing else...

I'm pretty certain the CD shows up in the list of drivers, but it is a SATA one so maybe that it doesn't have the native windows driver...how do I load the RAID driver?

swinnie · 25 Mar 2008 at 20:29

Are you actually booting from the CD or just putting the CD in when in Windows?

GazNofx · 25 Mar 2008 at 21:22

I've originally attempted to install when in Windows, but can't clean install as I can't boot from the CD...

TheLemster · 3 Apr 2008 at 09:11

I had similar problems... CD wasn't being booting in BIOS even though it was selected - I had to go back to an older BIOS version and I also have no floppy on the PC and needed to load SATA / RAID drivers during Windows set-up.

The strange thing is that during the initial Windows XP set-up boot it does recognise USB devices (in my case a FDD) but as soon as the text part text part appears it doesn't!! You can mess around trying to get it to work but I decided on nLite - you can make your own Windows XP install disk with your SATA / RAID drivers etc.