Reinstalling Win XP on Dell Dimension 3000 from USB, get error

[Derp Derpinson]

I bought a Dell Dimension 3000 and it came with Windows XP, and decided to upgrade it to Windows 7. After a few years, I now want to go back to Windows XP, simply because it is simple. My DVD Drive isn't working, nothing has been modified, or added, except one stick of RAM that is 1 GB I got from Staples. It works, and I know because I can run Win 7. I downloaded a retail edition of Windows XP Home Edition, SP3, the same OS my computer came with, and I have the licence key sticker attached to my computer. I put the Win XP installation on the USb by using Rufus. I then changed my boot to USB to default, and restarted my computer. Everything is working fine, and right when it says Setup is Starting, BAM! I got the Windows has been shut down to prevent damage. I looked around for a solution, and saw that I have to change my AHCI settings to IDE. I looked around my BIOS and didn't see any option for that. I have a Dell Dimension 3000 series BIOS, Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.8 GHz, !.25 GB of RAM, HIS Radeon 5450 512 MB Video Card, 200 watt power supply, and a 40 GB HDD. I would appreciate some help, and thanks.

 

[fixxxer113]

The setting in your BIOS could also have the options "native" and "legacy" instead of AHCI and IDE. Look for that and set it to legacy. It might be called something like "SATA mode" or "SATA function". Although usually, XP just reports no hard disk available with SATA, not "Windows has been shutdown to prevent damage". You should just be getting a message saying that you have to install SATA drivers first, from a floppy or USB drive. Maybe there's something else wrong with your PC or just the way you wrote the image on the USB drive?

Also, getting a new DVD drive is relly cheap and would be simpler than USB installation for XP.

For USB installation check this out too, it might work with XP also, and it's an official Microsoft tool:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

 

[Derp Derpinson]

There is nothing about native and legacy options on my BIOS. There is no section called SATA mode or SATA function. I downloaded a Windows XP retail edition directly from the microsoft website, and the Windows 7 USB tool worked, I put it in, booted from it, and the same problem came. I will be quoting it:


"A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart you computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure iyt is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

 

[fixxxer113]

OK, you said AHCI so I thought you had a SATA controller. From what I saw, this PC has an IDE controller only so AHCI/SATA settings don't apply to you. The errorocode you're getting is something you can look up in the Microsoft Knowledge Base site. It seems it might be a hardware issue according to this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103/

Also it mentions somewhere that if you downloaded Windows XP from the MSDN site, you might also get this error:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315031

I hope this helps. Try running CHKDSK as suggested in the error message. If you can't enter the setup procedure at all and get to the repair console to run it, you must find a way to boot to DOS and run the command.

You could also try testing your system with the Ultimate Boot CD to see if your HDD is OK. The new one even includes a Linux OS that boots straight from the CD and runs in RAM so you can see your HDD from there, check it, re-format it etc.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

[Derp Derpinson]

Thanks, but I decided to stay with Windows 7.