Windows Xp installation problem.

jiltloop

Hopefully I'm on the right forum here. I have a pc that I use for music production, it's been acting a little strangely as of late, despite me ridding it of any malware and viruses, so I decided to attempt to wipe the hard drive completely and reinstall windows and drivers etc to start afresh.I've never formatted a hard drive which contained the OS before, I tried to format it within the music pc but it would not let me (I didn't think it would anyway). So I removed the hard drive and inserted it into the old pc (win 2000) and started that up with win 2000. However the XP hard drive still would not allow me to format it even though there were no programs on it in use and no windows opened up from it. I attempted to delete all the files from within the hard drive but it deleted everything except the windows folder.So i then put it back into the music pc and started it up with the windows XP installation CD in the CD rom drive. It went to through the windows set up on a blue screen just after the initial start up but when I get to a page where it asks me to select a hard drive partition for Setup to write some startup files to I run into a problem.No matter which partition I select it tells me that "this disk does not contain a Windows XP compatible partition". It then asks me to go back and create a windows compatible partition. But I've tried deleting and creating partitions to no avail. I keep getting the same above message about compatible partitions.Can anyone help me with this problem? I hope I haven't messed up this pc as it's very important for my setup. Any help appreciated and thanks for reading such a long post.
Sorry about the big block of text, I can't seem to keep the paragraphs in.

JDxtra

Are you sure you are deleting the partitions correctly when booting from the XP disc? From memory, I think your press D to delete then L to confirm. You could also be trying to do a repair instead of a fresh install. Or maybe your Windows XP disc is for upgrades only?

jiltloop

Yes I am deleting the partitions correctly and you're right it is D for delete and L to confirm. And I'm not using the repair setup because that is an option earlier in the menu system which requires you to press R. Just looking at my Win XP copy here now and it doesn't seem to be an upgrade, well it doesn't say upgrade on the cover and there's nothing else to suggest that it is an upgrade ( I bought the pc 2nd hand a number of months ago and a genuine copy of XP came with it).

jiltloop

Still looking for assistance lads. If any of you could help me it would be great. Cheers.

cpu-dude

jiltloop wrote: »

Still looking for assistance lads. If any of you could help me it would be great. Cheers.

First things first, are you worried about loosing any content on this hard drive? Because I can't tell from your post?

If not, then within the Windows XP install, delete all partitions and create a new one and install XP on it. By the way, you can't format a partition if it's in use (e.g with Windows loaded, you can't format the C drive).

jiltloop

cpu-dude wrote: »

First things first, are you worried about loosing any content on this hard drive? Because I can't tell from your post?

If not, then within the Windows XP install, delete all partitions and create a new one and install XP on it. By the way, you can't format a partition if it's in use (e.g with Windows loaded, you can't format the C drive).

No I want to format the drive anyway. I think I've tried to delete all the partitions but I'll try again when I get home this evening.

Yeah I suspected I wouldn't be able to format the drive while it was in use, that's why I put the hard drive in my older computer and booted the older pc with it's own HD but it still wouldn't let me delete the HD.

I'll try to delete the partitions again anyway and then see if it will install on a new partition that I create. One more question though, when it asks what size do I want the partition to be what size do you recommend I make it? The HD capacity is roughly 232000 MB.

Thanks for the post mate.

cpu-dude

Then it's simple...

1. Boot from the XP install CD
2. Delete all the visible partitions
3. Create a new partition.
4. Install XP on the new partition.



I suggest creating a 50GB partition for your OS and the rest for your music, videos, games, pictures, downloads etc.

jiltloop

I followed your directions and everything seemed to be working fine, the drive was formatted and then the startup files seemed to install ok but when I rebooted the pc it says Error loading operating system. It won't go past this point and I'm not even sure now how to restart the installation again to try it a second time. Any suggestions? I think I'm cursed when it comes to PCs!

Webmonkey

Hmm strange but try fixing the boot sector.

boot into that cd like above but on the first screen press R to enter recovery console.

Press 1 or what ever to enter the Windows installation.

Type

fixmbr and press enter
Then fixboot and enter.

Type reboot and enter.


By the way do you have more than one hard drive, it could be attempting to boot off the primary but you've installed the the secondary.

jiltloop

You could be onto something there actually. I do have 2 hard drives and now that you mention it I have a feeling that the only partition I created that would work may have been on the secondary HD. How do I get the pc to boot from the second hard drive? I suppose its a case of changing the jumpers on each drive?

massy086

why not just wipe the hard drive completely with this program boot and nuke google it it,s free either off a disc or floppy or usb should work fine then 4 you

jiltloop

massy086 wrote: »

why not just wipe the hard drive completely with this program boot and nuke google it it,s free either off a disc or floppy or usb should work fine then 4 you

Yeah I might try that program and see if it does the job, the only thing is I just tried to boot the pc for the first time since the weekend and it's now saying NTLDR is missing. Does anyone know what that means?

Webmonkey

Boot loader messed up.

try this sequence of commands in the recovery console
fixmbr
fixboot
bootcfg /rebuild
reboot

jiltloop

Webmonkey wrote: »

Boot loader messed up.

try this sequence of commands in the recovery console
fixmbr
fixboot
bootcfg /rebuild
reboot

Unfortunately I can't access the recovery console as the pc either does one of 2 things when I try to boot, it brings up the NTLDR message or the error loading OS message. I think they only way I might be able to get onto the recovery console now is maybe to take the hard drives out and reformat them using my other pc and then when I boot with the empty harddrives it should let me access the recovery console and windows setup again.Does this make sense or does anyone have any other ideas? Wish I had just left things alone now!

MunsterCycling

you use those commands using the install cd.

MC

jiltloop

MunsterCycling wrote: »

you use those commands using the install cd.

MC

Yeah but the install cd won't load anymore when I boot the pc, instead it tries to load the OS. Is there any way of getting it to boot from the install cd again?

Webmonkey

You can change the boot order/sequence in the BIOS setup or usually there is a key like F8 to keep pressed and it brings up a boot menu.

jiltloop

Webmonkey wrote: »

You can change the boot order/sequence in the BIOS setup or usually there is a key like F8 to keep pressed and it brings up a boot menu.

OK cheers, I'll try that now.

slowlydownwards

Alternative solution: Get GParted Live, burn it to a cd (or else run it from a usb thumb drive if you can boot your pc of usb). It will load a linux osfrom cd with GParted program which will allow you to do any sort of partition management. It is all GUI, no command line gimmicks.

A lot of ubuntu disks are circulating around also. Booting into ubuntu live from a cd (makes no installs or changes to the hard drive) will alow you to again execute GParted for disk management.

Webmonkey

GParted is really good alright