Trying to install Win XP

pod

I have Bootit NG installed on my HD. Nothing else is on the HD.

I now want to install Windows XP.

When I click on the ‘Partition Work’ icon in Bootit NG it states…

NEW MBR ENT-0 Partition 2047MB FAT-16

---

Partition 17485 MB Free Space
BootIt EMBRM Partition 8MB BootIt EMBRM

I think this means it’s partitioned correctly. If not, let me know.

I read this article…
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,97444-page,1/article.html
which states that in order to create a bootdisk I should copy files boot.ini, ntdetect.com, and ntldr to the floppy; which I did.

Using the bios I ensured the pc would boot from the floppy, and I inserted this bootdisk in the A drive and booted.

It now states on the screen that the following is missing or corrupt…
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll

Is there another bootdisk which I could use? Or should I attempt to install this missing system32 file somehow?

Beecher

This happened to me in work, it seemed to be caused by a mis configured boot.ini file.

To fix:

1. Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.
2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
4. Typically this will be #1
5. Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file
6. Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it
7. Take out the CD ROM and type exit

pod

Beecher wrote:

1. Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.

Thanks Beecher.

I thought the windows CD was not bootable and that was why I needed a bootdisk on a floppy?

Do you mean boot from the CD without the bootdisk in the floppy?

Ruu_Old

To boot from the XP disc, the CDROM drive has to be set as the first boot device as far as I know.
To set the CD/DVD ROM drive as the first boot device, go into the BIOS settings when the computer starts (it will say press DEL, F2 or some other key, to enter setup). You should find an option to change the boot device order on one of those pages, make sure the CDROM is set as the first device.

Beecher

Yup. Open your bios and change the boot order to boot from the cd-rom first.

Edit: Beaten :mad:

pod

Ok, I changed the bios to boot from the CD and ensured the Win XP CD was in the CD drive.

Then rebooted.

BootIt NG is the only thing I have installed on the HD so once I had rebooted the BootIt NG's boot menu appeared.

I clicked on Direct Boot.

After doing so the following option is highlighted...

NEW MBR ENT-0 HD0 Partition 0 2047MB FAT-16

So I click Boot.

It then states onscreen;

This partition does not contain an operating system. If you are about to install a new OS then insert the installation diskette into drive A:

Press any key to run the BIOS bootstrap loader...

Once I insert the boot diskette (which I mentioned in my first post) into drive A: and I press a key it states;

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt

<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll

Please reinstall a copy of this file.

I wonder is my HD formatted correctly?

Beecher

Hang on, is your hdd formatted to Fat 16? That would be a problem there since its an archaic type of filing system. XP needs requires a NTFS partition (At least I dont believe it can run off a fat partition).

Do you really need BootIt NG? Why dont you just use the windows installer to create partitions or is there something special you are trying to do?

pod

I think it may be formatted to FAT 16.

No, I don't need BootIt NG.

Beecher wrote:

Why dont you just use the windows installer to create partitions or is there something special you are trying to do?

Should I therefore just wipe the HD and install direct from the CD?

I don't have anything on the HD that I need.

Beecher

pod wrote:

Should I therefore just wipe the HD and install direct from the CD?

I don't have anything on the HD that I need.

Yup

pod

Ok, thanks Beecher.

I'll go and try that now...

pod

Ok, I've just used the uninstall on BootIt NG and this has been uninstalled.

In order to completely wipe the HD, and therefore get rid of the FAT 16 partition, I think I would be able to do this by typing in the word reformat at the C prompt.

Unless there's some other way to wipe the HD...?

But I can't seem to get a C prompt. How do I get a C prompt in order to type in reformat?

yoyo

Put XP disc into drive, boot off it, it will then appear "Press enter to install Windows" or "Press R to repair", press enter at this point, hit f8 to accept license agreement and the windows partion management tool will appear, showing your current hard drive partition(s), just hit the D key on each partitions and delete them, when done successfully the xp setup will show text something like "unallocated space X amount of bytes).
Make sure this unallocated space is highlighted and hit enter, two options should appear:
* Format NTFS (Quick)
* Format NTFS

A quick format takes a minute and just wipes the disc, the other wipes the disc but also checks the disc for errors, might take a hour or so but I would reccomend full format option to a old hard drive.

After this format the windows XP installer will intervine and drop xps files on the hard drive, then configure the os,

Hope this helps,

Nick

pod

yoyo wrote:

Put XP disc into drive, boot off it,

I've just tried to boot from the CD but it states...

Error loading operating system_

and there is also no C prompt where I could type in reformat.

Mr. Presentable

Clean your CD

Set boot to "CD first"

select Install Windows

When offered delete partition (the big one)

Format same to NTFS

Install XP

Did this yesterday myself. If an idiot like me can do it......:)

pod

nipplenuts wrote:

Clean your CD

Ok, I've given the CD a wipe and when doing so I did notice a very, very small surface scratch. Hope this isn't the problem...

The bios is set to boot from the CD.

Tried it again but still states...
Error loading operating system_

If anyone knows how I can get a C: prompt so I can type in reformat and completely wipe the HD...

yoyo

pod wrote:

I've just tried to boot from the CD but it states...

Error loading operating system_

and there is also no C prompt where I could type in reformat.

Did you hit enter at the "Boot from CD Rom..." prompt by the XP CD, to sum up:
* Make CD ROM Drive first boot device in BIOs and Hard Drive second
* Place the Windows XP CD into the CD ROM drive and save all changes to the BIOs and reboot
* Upon next boot a bit of text should appear "Press any key to boot from cd..." hit Enter key.
* Follow the instructions from my previous post, if you are unable to boot from your cd drive and the operating system is damaged that kind of error you say might appear,

Nick

Mr. Presentable

yoyo wrote:

the operating system is damaged that kind of error you say might appear,

Nick

TBH, it still sounds like it's trying to boot the HDD.

yoyo

nipplenuts wrote:

TBH, it still sounds like it's trying to boot the HDD.

Thats what I was pointing out, that error is stating the computer cant boot off the hard drive or load the os, ie no hard drive boot is possible, its nothing to do with the cd!

Nick

pod

yoyo wrote:

Did you hit enter at the "Boot from CD Rom..." prompt by the XP CD, to sum up:
* Make CD ROM Drive first boot device in BIOs and Hard Drive second
* Place the Windows XP CD into the CD ROM drive and save all changes to the BIOs and reboot

I've just checked the bios again and in the BOOT SEQUENCE section the option CD-ROM FIRST is selected.

I don't have HD selected as a second option.

I've only ensured the CD-ROM FIRST option is selected.

Then with the CD in the CD drive I have re-booted but it still states the same error.

To ensure it boots from the CD drive is this the only thing I should do? That is, ensure the CD-ROM FIRST option is selected in the BOOT SEQUENCE option in bios?

yoyo

pod wrote:

I've just checked the bios again and in the BOOT SEQUENCE section the option CD-ROM FIRST is selected.

I don't have HD selected as a second option.

I've only ensured the CD-ROM FIRST option is selected.

Then with the CD in the CD drive I have re-booted but it still states the same error.

To ensure it boots from the CD drive is this the only thing I should do? That is, ensure the CD-ROM FIRST option is selected in the BOOT SEQUENCE option in bios?

Is there a option shown as the pc POSTs (IE detects CPU and other components the first few secs), like "Boot Menu", especially on laptops it may be neccesary to use a boot menu (Usually pressing [F12]) to manually boot from the cd rom for 1 time only, but if you arnt getting a "Press any key to boot from cd..." you may be in trouble, you could possibly create a windows start up disc and using the command prompt on it type \SETUP (Where D is your cd drive letter), also forget format c: in a dos command, that will only format the drive to FAT32, gotta use the xp setup to easily format to NTFS...

Nick

Edit: Your using a official microsoft xp cd and not a backup?

pod

yoyo wrote:

Is there a option shown as the pc POSTs (IE detects CPU and other components the first few secs), like "Boot Menu", especially on laptops it may be neccesary to use a boot menu

As it boots up the only message displayed is F2=SETUP. I should mention it's a pc, not a laptop.

yoyo wrote:

(Usually pressing [F12]) to manually boot from the cd rom for 1 time only,

I pressed F12 as it was booting and a message came onscreen under the F2=SETUP message which read Attempting Network Boot.

After that I'm left with a blank black screen and a flashing _ icon. I waited a few minutes but nothing happened.

yoyo wrote:

Your using a official microsoft xp cd and not a backup?

Yes, it's the official microsoft xp cd.

yoyo wrote:

you could possibly create a windows start up disc and using the command prompt on it type \SETUP (Where D is your cd drive letter), also forget format c: in a dos command, that will only format the drive to FAT32, gotta use the xp setup to easily format to NTFS...

Do you mean make a Windows xp bootdisk on a diskette? What’s NTFS?

yoyo

NTFS = New Technology File System, It replaces FAT32 and FAT16, you can create a boot disk (Floppy) from within windows, go to My Computer>right clic k floppy drive with a blank disk in and click format, select option make boot disk, it will simply add a few files including cmd so you can hopefully manage to execute the XP installer via the command line (D:\SETUP), I still find it bizzare your pc wont boot off cd for you

Good luck,

Nick

Mr. Presentable

How old is the PC? Does it have a bootable CDRom? It's starting to look like its a Win 98 spec machine that isn't accessing the CD on boot, regardless of what is set in BIOS.

pod

yoyo wrote:

NTFS = New Technology File System, It replaces FAT32 and FAT16, you can create a boot disk (Floppy) from within windows, go to My Computer>right clic k floppy drive with a blank disk in and click format, select option make boot disk, it will simply add a few files including cmd so you can hopefully manage to execute the XP installer via the command line (D:\SETUP)

Thanks I'll try that now...

pod

nipplenuts wrote:

How old is the PC?

I'm not too sure. It is a few years old as it's a used base unit.

nipplenuts wrote:

Does it have a bootable CDRom? It's starting to look like its a Win 98 spec machine that isn't accessing the CD on boot, regardless of what is set in BIOS.

I'm not too sure. It is the older cream colour base unit.

pod

yoyo wrote:

NTFS = New Technology File System, It replaces FAT32 and FAT16, you can create a boot disk (Floppy) from within windows, go to My Computer>right clic k floppy drive with a blank disk in and click format, select option make boot disk, it will simply add a few files including cmd so you can hopefully manage to execute the XP installer via the command line (D:\SETUP)

I made the boot disk and placed in the drive A.

I then re-booted twice...
a) first time without changing the bios. Left it so it still had boot from CD.
b) second time I changed the bios so it would boot from the diskette drive

Both times it gave an A: prompt and when I typed in on both occasions it stated Invalid drive specification and did not change to a prompt.

Perhaps the pc is not of recent enough build...

pod

yoyo wrote:

forget format c: in a dos command, that will only format the drive to FAT32, gotta use the xp setup to easily format to NTFS...

If I use the iolo DriveScrubber to wipe the drive

http://www.iolo.com/ds/3/download.aspx

do you think this might help?

Then try and boot from the win xp cd once the HD is completely wiped?

If I do this then I don't think it would be formatted to FAT32...

yoyo

pod wrote:

If I use the iolo DriveScrubber to wipe the drive

http://www.iolo.com/ds/3/download.aspx

do you think this might help?

Then try and boot from the win xp cd once the HD is completely wiped?

If I do this then I don't think it would be formatted to FAT32...

Formatting isnt the problem here, trying to boot from the cd is, you may wipe the hard drive even to FAT32 using fdisk, but your still not gonna be able to boot from cd by the sounds of it, does the cd drive light flash while the pc starts, does the BIOs POST detect the CD Drive (A load of info is displayed for 2 secs on pc start, should show your CD Drive name under IDE devices).
Best bet I'd say is to try another optical drive in the machine, perhaps a newer one? Make sure Jumpers set correctly,

Nick