Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support (
More info?)
Thank you for your further thoughts and for the relevant links which I have
studied closely.
Since doing that, I have tried to install XP by booting direct to my CD ROM.
According to www.windowsreinstall.com I should be able to do this to a drive
that is brand new, used, or one that does or does not have an operating
system already on it as the installation process will prompt for product
keys, evidence of eligibility etc at the appropriate times.
In my experiences, however, I never get that far. The PC boots from the CD,
I get the “Welcome to Setup� page and the setup files are loaded. So far so
good. I press “Enter� and setup starts "examining 57240MB Disk 0 at id 0 on
bus 0 on atpi . . . ." but then the system reboots. It continues in this
cycle until I stop it or until I get a “disk error – press any key to
restart� message.
I have repeated this process several times both with and without Windows 98
installed. The results are the same.
Trying to install from within Windows 98 is no more successful. Autorun
starts the CD. I have tried both the “Upgrade (recommended)� and “New
Installation� approaches. I put in the product key, and follow the processes
through. Whilst these differ slightly, all seems to be going well until I
reach a stage during “Preparing Installation� (but before “Installing
Windows�) when setup restarts the PC. I get as far as the Windows logo where
the progress bar moves across two and a half times before the system reboots.
This cycle then continues until I stop it or until I get a “disk error –
press any key to restart�. Under the “New Installation� option I have also
tried the option of selecting the drive on which to install and repartition.
This, too, gets to the first reboot, Setup starts, loads the setup files then
reboots – back into the same cycle.
As far as my hardware is concerned, it seems to be running fine. Windows 98
is installed and OK. Word is installed and is OK. I am using the same video
card, printer, monitor, keyboard and mouse as before (when XP (as an upgrade)
performed perfectly). My DVD rewriter is also the same (but without Windows
XP it will only “read�). The motherboard (modern Gigabyte), processor (Athlon
64 3400+), memory (512mb) and power supply are new but there is no evidence
that I can find that they are not performing as they should. Scandisk has
checked all my disks (two physical drives and several logical drives) and
found no errors.
Before disaster struck, my anti-virus auto-updated every eight hours, my
firewall was always running, I regularly ran anti-spyware software (eg
Adaware, CW Shredder), and Microsoft’s own Beta anti-spyware release was
installed and running so it is difficult to think that anything malicious is
involved.
Maybe I am still missing something here but I really cannot see what it is
nor where I go from here. Any more suggestions?
Thanks.
Chris.
"Sharon F" wrote:
> On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 08:09:13 -0700, Chris A. wrote:
>
> > Have been feeling that I am getting stuck ever deeper into the sand here. For
> > example, tried to remove all traces of my camera; there were no "unistall"
> > options anywhere ( under Add/Remove in Control/Panel, in the camera's own
> > folder within Program Files nor under device manager). In the end, I simply
> > deleted the camera's own folder. Despite this, the XP installation process
> > still advised me that there might be problems with the camera later on.
> >
> > This, however, is now the ONLY issue, that the XP advised me about. But the
> > installation stalled, as before, when the PC restarted and we got back to the
> > progress bar - it passes under the logo two and a half times then reboots.
> > (Previously it would reboot only three times before giving a disk error; now
> > it takes about 10 reboots!)
> >
> > Re your comment:
> >
> >> [1 quoted line suppressed]
> > Win98. Are you sure your recovery CD blanked the drive and installed just
> > Win98? Are you sure you're installing XP as an upgrade and not mistakenly
> > creating a second Windows installation on the same drive? I think you need
> > to take a good hard look on what you have going here. Possibly starting
> > over and keeping more on track.<<
> >
> > . . . . .I have to say that I am no longer entirely certain what has
> > happened. What I do know is this: years ago I had Win 98 running quite
> > happily (albeit very unstable). I added a new hard drive (about 2003) and the
> > new drive software copied all my "old" C:\ drive files (including Windows 98)
> > to my new created C:\ drive. As far as I recall, the files on my "old" C\
> > drive remained there (on what what was now my D:\ drive). I never thought too
> > much about them but left them there "just in case". Whilst this meant that I
> > had a "Widows" directory on both my C:\ and D:\ drives, I do not know if this
> > meant I had two functional versions of windows. Be that as it may, the
> > upgrade to XP last November was relatively straightforward. As far as I am
> > aware XP ugraded to my C:\ drive but I do not know how to verify that now.
> >
> > Decided your "start over" option sounded like good sense at this point so I
> > uninstalled Windows 98. This seemed to go well and my PC now behaves - as far
> > as I can ascertain - as it did at the beginning of this thread (ie Windows
> > won't start (at all) and the "repair intallation" only goes so far before
> > rebooting repeatedly.
> >
> > Using an old Windows 98 "startup" disk (which seems to be the only way I can
> > get at anything) I looked at my C:\ and D:\ drives. To my surprise, both
> > still have windows directories even after the uninstall process. Many of the
> > files within these directories are the same (though many are not); the
> > directory on C:\ is dated 18 Sept 1999 yet the directory on D:\ is dated
> > today - 4 July 2005. I really do not know that is going on.
> >
> > Before I try and reinstall Windows 98 (again) does any of this help/make
> > sense/suggest another course of action first? (eg should I delete one, or
> > other or both those windows directories?).
> >
> > [Incidentally, I only have access to two Win 98 disks; one is the one I
> > used before -
> > (but I do not know how to tell what sort it is); the other is an OEM Windows
> > 98 Second Edition that came with another PC some years ago.
> >
> > Sorry to go on at such lenght; I do recognise that this is taking up a
> > disproportionate amount of your time.
> >
> > Chris (with sand up to my chin).
> >
>
> You need to reassess where you're at and then map out where you want to go
> and how you're going to get there.
>
> There are some screens during XP's setup that are a bit (okay, a lot)
> ambiguous. If you don't read them carefully you can end up with two
> versions of Windows on a single drive instead of upgrading or clean
> installing. The key is to delete the target partition and recreate it. Next
> you choose the partition to install XP to this prepared area. And then are
> asked how you want it formatted.
>
> Some more resources for you about the install procedure:
>
> Upgrade Paths to Windows XP
>
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_upgrade_paths.htm
>
> Clean Install Procedure with Illustrative Screen Captures
>
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm
>
> Clean Install Procedure with Illustrative Screen Captures
>
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_pro_install_-_graphic.htm
>
> Upgrading to Windows XP
>
http://www.theeldergeek.com/upgrading_to_windows_xp.htm
>
> Beware of popups here (strongly advise using a popup blocker if you visit
> here) but in spite of the popup annoyances some more useful pictorial
> guides can be found here: http://www.windowsreinstall.com/
>
> NOTE: The clean install method will not ask for a Win98 startup disk. It
> will ask for a Win98 CD. Setup wants to see the version of Windows that you
> are using to qualify for using the upgrade version of XP. If you cannot
> provide an acceptable CD at that point, setup will not continue.
>
> An upgrade install started from within Win98 will end up with one Windows
> folder with a few remnants of Win98 remaining.
>
> A full version CD of XP can perform an upgrade or clean install but does
> not require proof.
>
> A generic OEM XP (available from some dealers with the purchase of some
> computer components), performs a clean install only. It is cheaper than the
> full version but, technically, its license will be tied permanently to the
> machine that it is installed on.
>
> --
> Sharon F
> MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
>
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