Reinstalling XP Pro - Stuck in a restarting cycle

Bruce Fan

My PC was acting up the other week so I decided to reinstall XP Pro SP1. When it was nearly there the PC restarted and the screen read:
"setup is now restarting........"
then the screen went black and the PC restarted shortly after.

Now it just keeps retarting at the same point, over and over.

I've unplugged all devices like printers etc and I've tried changing the boot BIOS to CDROM but this has made no difference.

I'm all out of ideas, any help? :rolleyes:

McAlban

Try changing the Boot order to CD first then Hard Drive...if not already done.

after the Bios Splash Screen you should get "Press any key to boot from CD....." ignore it.

Let it boot to the hard drive and See if setup Continues... If not try again with the CD removed from the CD drive.

If that doesn't work, boot from the CD, run setup repair... (It should recongnise XP as already installed)

If it Still won't boot into windows, Run Setup from the beginning (including Partition setup and formatting) and Start all over again...You're not going to lose anything and it will take 40 minutes.

Bruce Fan

I have already tried changing the boot order to CD Rom 1st then HD. It won't boot up. I get the "Press any key to continue...." but when I do it just gives me some kind of "boot not found on the CD Rom" message.

How do I run setup up repair or run setup from the beginning?

jman0

Gotta be able to boot off the CD for that.

Bruce Fan

Thats the thing. I found this guide:
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138
which would suit me fine it the bloody cd would just boot but it just won't recognise it for some reason.

jman0

It sounds like your CD-ROM drive is detected, otherwise it wouldn't appear in the boot order menu.
So, that leaves the CD.
Is it a burned one or is it scratched.