[taosd]

Recently I formatted my hard drive and wanted to start clean with a fresh install of Windows XP Pro on my Hard Drive. The only reason for the change from Windows 2000 was basically the fact that XP looks better and has some new interesting features. So I formatted my drive on saturday (today is tuesday) and booted up from the Windows XP CD. I followed the setup instructions carefully and got throught the first DOS part of the installation. Then it restarted, went into the windows part of the installer and carried on. It was setting up the devices and such and it brought up the regional settings dialogue. I set everything up as it said to, and finally I got to a screen that asked me where I lived and what my area code was. I entered "Canada" and "403" and clicked next. Then the installer shut down. I figured it was just the computer rebooting, so I let it do its thing. It came to the third part of the installation where it is in Windows but it is different from before. And all it said was "Setup is being restarted..." This frustrated me, but I let it setup again... and again... and again. Finally I got tired of this and formatted my drive and installed Windows 2000, put all my stuff back on my Hard Drive that I had backed up, and went on. Then yesterday I was reading another tech support forum and they told me to remove the modem, and if worse came to worse, just dual boot the OS's. So I threw in the Windows XP cd, and chose to upgrade from Windows 2000. Also I removed the modem as I was told. I went through the installation and everything just as before, but this time, it restarted the computer right after setting up the devices. It didn't ask for my regional settings, and from here I knew there was trouble. It went into the third part of the installer and said "Setup is being restarted..." so I shut off the computer, and turned it back on, hoping for a boot menu... but to no avail, it just went back into setup. So I had to format again, and I am just setting back up now.

So, Is there any way that I can install Windows XP without risking another format (I'm not losing information, it's just bloody time consuming and boring)? I mean 100% sure it's gonna work, because as I said before, I don't want to format again. Thanks.

 

[davidw333]

Recently I formatted my hard drive and wanted to start clean with a fresh install of Windows XP Pro on my Hard Drive. The only reason for the change from Windows 2000 was basically the fact that XP looks better and has some new interesting features. So I formatted my drive on saturday (today is tuesday) and booted up from the Windows XP CD. I followed the setup instructions carefully and got throught the first DOS part of the installation. Then it restarted, went into the windows part of the installer and carried on. It was setting up the devices and such and it brought up the regional settings dialogue. I set everything up as it said to, and finally I got to a screen that asked me where I lived and what my area code was. I entered "Canada" and "403" and clicked next. Then the installer shut down. I figured it was just the computer rebooting, so I let it do its thing. It came to the third part of the installation where it is in Windows but it is different from before. And all it said was "Setup is being restarted..." This frustrated me, but I let it setup again... and again... and again. Finally I got tired of this and formatted my drive and installed Windows 2000, put all my stuff back on my Hard Drive that I had backed up, and went on. Then yesterday I was reading another tech support forum and they told me to remove the modem, and if worse came to worse, just dual boot the OS's. So I threw in the Windows XP cd, and chose to upgrade from Windows 2000. Also I removed the modem as I was told. I went through the installation and everything just as before, but this time, it restarted the computer right after setting up the devices. It didn't ask for my regional settings, and from here I knew there was trouble. It went into the third part of the installer and said "Setup is being restarted..." so I shut off the computer, and turned it back on, hoping for a boot menu... but to no avail, it just went back into setup. So I had to format again, and I am just setting back up now.

So, Is there any way that I can install Windows XP without risking another format (I'm not losing information, it's just bloody time consuming and boring)? I mean 100% sure it's gonna work, because as I said before, I don't want to format again. Thanks.

This is a very common mistake, and please take no offense because I've done this a few times my slef. But you said you you booted up from the win XP cd. So that means you had to set your bios boot sequence for the cd-rom to precede everything else. Now when the setup restarts your computer, did you forget to set your bios back to the cd-rom being last in the boot sequence? Because when the setup restarts the comp and you still have boot sequence booting from cd-rom, after it boots with the xp cd-rom, your comp does NOT know it was in the middle of setting up Win Xp. So if you exit that, you now have a half assed OS which might explain why you were getting the resulting problems. Hope this helps, a long shot maybe, but it's an honest mistake a lot of people make (or I'd like to think because I've done it a few times).

 

[SPEEDO]

Welcome to Tech Support Forums taosd...............

I have never had much luck with formatting and installing a new OS.

You either have to write zero's to the drive or run Zap available here.

This will clean out the master boot record along with the first 128 sectors.

After this is done you need to boot to the XP CD-Rom and do your setup......

What brand of hard drive do you have?

 

[taosd]

What brand of hard drive do you have?

Fujitsu... I don't know the model number, but it is a 15 GB fujitsu

 

[SPEEDO]

Take a look here for the utility to erase the drive, If you choose to do so.....

This will take some time but when it's done it will be erased.

It'll be just like brand new second hand.........

 

[taosd]

But that link is dead! it says that www.fujitsu.ca isn't even a website...

 

[SPEEDO]

Well it works for me................

Here is what I get off of the link.

 

[taosd]

this is what i get...

 

[Valiant]

I don't mean to hijack this by any stretch, but can you find one of those for a western dig?

BTW welcome to Tech Support Forums TAOSD

nice site! is it yours?

 

[taosd]

I don't mean to hijack this by any stretch, but can you find one of those for a western dig?

BTW welcome to Tech Support Forums TAOSD

nice site! is it yours?

Which site? if you are talking about the ones in my signature, then the first one is all mine, and the second one was designed by me and I run it, but I only consider myself a co-owner of it. Thanks a lot for the compliment. My name, TAOSD, is actually just an acronym (is that the right word?) for The Art Of Self Destruction

 

[Valiant]

I knew it was an acronym, and yes that the right word....that's what I capitalized it... great job on the sites

 

[SPEEDO]

Hey Val can you get to the site?

taosd, I just downloaded it do want me to email it to you it's only 31 K........

 

[taosd]

Hey Val can you get to the site?

taosd, I just downloaded it do want me to email it to you it's only 31 K........

Please do, [email protected], thanks a million

 

[taosd]

I am gonna try this tonight. I am going to run this program and then format, just for good measure. If it works, yay, but if it doesn't well... I guess I'll be slightly pissed off. Could running this program potentially ruin my hard drive? I don't want to run it and learn that my HD is screwed. The program doesn't do anything to the BIOS does it? thanks.

 

[SPEEDO]

It should only erase the drive and shouldn't hurt anything....

I use these type programs when changing OS's all the time.

Did you ever format a drive and reload the OS to find that it remembers some of your info when you install your programs?

Makes you wonder!..........

 

[taosd]

Heh, Me and my cousin formatted his drive, and he had 68 MB taken up afterwords, I was confused by that... We unhid all the files that were there but it didn't show up as anything...

:whip:

 

[SPEEDO]

Sounds like an awful lot of space.

Did you fdisk it and see what partitions were in there?

 

[taosd]

no, we just ran the format throught windows 2000, he threw his drive into my computer and we just formatted it that way. Then we re-installed windows 2000 throught windows 2000, my CD rom to his HD. This was a mistake as it didn't set up the boot configuration and kinda screwed up his system. Tonight he is gonna come over I think and we are going to do a mass formatting, my computer and his, He will load Windows 2000 and I will load Windows XP Pro, if i can get the bloody program to work!

:type: