Wierd XP Pro SP2 Install Problem

alphaomega16 · 4 Aug 2009 at 08:41

Heya guys, starting to get quite fraustrated with vista so thought I would try putting XP Pro Service Pack 2 on a 80gb Sata drive I got.

This was the hard drive I used to see what windows 7 was like and after doing a format after it loaded everything from the CD and it copied the files it said it needed to restart so I let it restart.

Instead of going to the screen where u see XP and it starts to actually install windows it comes up with "Error Unable To Load Operating System"

I have spent a while on the internet and come across conflicting answers and cant find a definite response to this problem so I was wondering if anyone had had this problem as well.

This is my current computer.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/alphaomega16/Comp222.jpg

cokecan · 4 Aug 2009 at 08:56

have you got a memory stick plugged in?

If not, check the boot order in the bios.

You could also try and repair/rebuild the MBR, then I'd also do a full NTFS format using either the XP cd or a boot disk

alphaomega16 · 4 Aug 2009 at 10:28

Nope, only thing plugged in at the time is the single hard drive and the DVD Writers.

Should there be a MBR on the HDD if I have done a quick format ?

I also formatted the 2 storage drives I have in windows 7, would XP have a problem detecting them ?

cokecan · 4 Aug 2009 at 10:33

if they were formatted in something XP understands i.e. fat32 or ntfs then XP should have no trouble seeing the drives. the only issue would be if their sata and xp doesnt have the sata drivers on the disk to see the drives, this is where a floppy disk with them on (press F6 during xp install to load drivers) or a new xp disk is created with the sata drivers slipstreamed into it using nlite or something

if you want an OS to boot then you need the MBR on the drive as it holds the primary partition table and according to Wiki, bootstraps the OS.

There are plenty of tools around to fix the MBR, alternativly if you can get into fdsisk you could run c: \ fixmbr (i think thats right? lol)

alphaomega16 · 4 Aug 2009 at 10:36

Dont have a floppy connected to computer at the moment.

I did do a quick format before, should I have done a full. Gonna see if I can get some sleep now the temp has gone down a bit in room and see if I have any luck later hehe.

cokecan · 4 Aug 2009 at 11:08

quick or full shouldnt make any difference. as far as I know the MBR is stored outside the partition so wouldn't have been affected by either format option? (someone correct me if im wrong lol)