[DymlosTalos]

Ok ill try to explain the best i can.

I just built a new system everything is installed and plugged in ect. I have 2 harddrives 200 gigs each.

I start the computer for the first time and it says it wants to boot from cd so i put in my XP cd.

It asks what drive i want it on and i tell it what partition ect. It formats that and and says it wants to restart, so i do and then i wait for it to go back so i can install windows. Which it does but then it wants to start booting from cd again and installing and itm keeps repeating that.

[Advertisements]

Hello and welcome to Geeks to Go! I'm kool808 and I will be helping you today.

Did you try to remove the CD and try rebooting again?
Try READING THIS, under the installing Win XP article, have all instructions printed so you wont miss a thing.

[kool808]

Hello and welcome to Geeks to Go! I'm kool808 and I will be helping you today.

Did you try to remove the CD and try rebooting again?
Try READING THIS, under the installing Win XP article, have all instructions printed so you wont miss a thing.

[kool808]

You may want to read THIS too.

[DymlosTalos]

yep i tried removing it and i get the same message over and over.

it says : DISK BOOT FAILURE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.

I set all the boot devices to do it from the hard disk and it still says the above message.

[kool808]

That means that your partition have not been formatted correctly, when choose from the setup options select format NTFS partition, this is used for the Win XP OS.

[DymlosTalos]

Thats the thing i boot from disk (it forces me of the disk is in the drive) and it takes me to windows setup and asks if i want to format this partition ntsf yatta yatta, quick or normal.

To be safe i click normal and let it take an hour doing its thing in which when its done it promptly restarts and goes back to the SAME screen asking what type of format i want except this time says windows is already on this partition and gives me one more option to leave the file systems the way they are.

And this is where my problem is it keeps repeating that over and ovedr i cant go to any next step and it never actually seems to install or try to install windows.

[DymlosTalos]

Currently writing zeros to the drive to see if i can solve it that way..

[Murray S.]

Howdy and welcome to G2G:

You are doing everything right thus far so try this right after it asks for that first reboot during install..

When the system shuts down to reboot, boot it into BIOS.. Now, change the first boot device so it boots from IDE-0 first with the cd-rom being second..

Save the change and let the system start!!

Murray

[DymlosTalos]

8. Setup folder copy phase and reboot
Setup will now copy system files to the system/boot partition(s) you just created. This will allow the PC to boot from the C: drive and continue Setup in GUI mode.

When the file copy is complete, Setup will initialize and save your XP configuration. It will then reboot your PC.

When the system reboots, you will probably see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message again. If this happens, do not press a key: Setup will now boot from your C: drive. In the event that you cannot prevent the CD-based Setup from reloading, eject the CD and reboot. Setup will ask for the CD when needed.

It keeps repeating that without actually installing windows, so dont i need to let it install windows before i boot from my hdd?

[Murray S.]

When it goes to reboot for the first time, the necessary files will already be on the hdd..

Follow my instructions and see what happens..

Murray

[DymlosTalos]

I dont have a IDE-0 option.

I have
Floppy
LS120
HardDisk
CDROM
ZIP
USB-FDD
USB-ZIp
USB-CDROM
LEGACY LAN

if i do hard disk first then cd drive then floppy and restart
it says : DISK BOOT FAILURE INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.

[The Skeptic]

Restarting during XP installation should take place after formatting and file copying from the CD into HDD. If you are convinced that you took correctly all initial steps, particularly creating partitions before formatting, then I think you should try to clear up the bios and set it to default values and if this doesn't help than you might have a faulty XP disk and you should try another one.

[gerryf]

what drive are you installing to--first or second....almost sounds like you are installing windows to the second drive, without formatting and partitioning the first...the problem with this is that windows needs the first drive so it can write the boot sector and boot files to it, EVEN if you are installing the windows OS to the second drive.

Could that be what you are doing.

[DymlosTalos]

i only have one drive hooked up the other is messed up so i unhooked it.

Edited by DymlosTalos, 04 June 2005 - 01:46 PM.

[gerryf]

what is the motherboard?