Intalling XP pro on friends computer... need some help?

[Rabbitrunner51]

My close friend had a day off of work today and what should be simple such as deleting his HD, and installing a fresh copy of windows is turning out to be a nightmare. Of course i have done this on my computer several times, but for some odd reason I am having major issues with the process.

I have wiped and partitioned the drive. The first screen has the options of the three choices: 1. setup XP etc.. 2. Create partition in unpartioned space. 3. delete selected partition.

The XP screen shows 76319GB of free space. ( all of his disk, with no other partition. ), and zero below that.

I have loaded windows and done the porcess up to a point of when it reboots for next step like six times, and the computer load process tree screen, says to boot from CD. Now this is important. From the nice internet page link i got here 'best of Apps. and op. systems i have been re-reading what he wrote there for both partition and fresh install, and been following the steps per batem, to cross check my actions. it states that when prompted , DO NOT hit the enter key but do nothing which i remembered on my install recently, as i id that and it just looped into the whole process all over. he states if it tries to reboot anyway, then remove CD and reboot, which i cannot understand. I had never done that, so maybe i'm missing something here. It needs the CD to finish it install and load the final OS.
The next string is in load screen then says; ' error loading operating system', which i remember from a time i had same message back when.

For purpose of carity, i now have the screen up at present, which shows the size patiton at 76319 MB ( 75733 MB free ) on a 76320 MB disk0 at ID 1 etc.... {MBR}

Obviously this disk is not totally wiped and i think its because teh intitial windows files needed for loading the OS are on there. Am i wrong here?

I have partitoned ,wiped the drive and reloaded the fresh OS process sveral times,a d checked each time to make sure i choose the right option,even doing a diff. one to make sure, and I nver can get to the 'do not hit enter and then the next step automatically begins the five step OS install , which is typ.
When i was confused and did my own loop whn rebuilding this new rig and had to install my OS over, I messed up and hit the enter key and ..? Only when letting it go it goes into the final phase. Whata pain, and still think MS should have made this whole process or instructions at that point more clear.

He is now spending the night at my place, and i told him i will get this right. After all, i myself don't want to ever go through this again. I feel awfully stupid for having installed my own OS like dozens of timems right over the years. Bad hair day? maybe... geeze!

It now is formating the whole partition. I know from what i'm reading this is right step at this process. My drive takes like over 90 minutes, with alot of tuff ,but his had only like less then 50GB on it, so it takes only 20-25 minutes, with a slow CPU.

The whole point of going on about this is each time after the firt two processes after this, the computer reboots own its own, and then ai get 'boot from CD, which is right, and told to do nothing, and then get the error message i wrote above. The HD he has is fairly new, but he did have some major issues with system errors etc.. and other, hence the new install.

if a mod is reading this or other, please help ASAP, and want to know the exact steps on which screen and when exactly not to hit enter key. Cannot figure out why this is not going to next final 'install step with process tree'.

If i remember one should not have to remove the CD in any process, until the wholle of desktop is now intact and done. Nor have i had to first go into bios and change order of boot cycle. ( CD, then HD etc.. ) That typ. error message is key i know. Tells me something I should know but what? Stuff on OS drive?

[Midknyte]

I didn't see anywhere in your post where you ran diags. did you run a hard drive diag or not? It should not be taking that long to format a drive. Did you run memtest+?

As I have said many times, it is pointless to mess with software unless you have verified that the hardware is good. It doesn't matter if the drive is "fairly new". I've seen drives die in less than a year.

[Rabbitrunner51]

You know, thats probably good advice, but i'm stumped, and i mean stumped.

I went to another link and googled for XP install and got one with step by step pictures, and just ran yet another install try EXACTLY step by step as listed, which i had done anyways, and upon reboot, i get 'boot from CD' twice and immediate 'errror loading OS' message and nodda.
I distinkly remember this happening to me somewher in the past myself, and got it fixed. I'm smart enough now to know whts wrong i think but who knows.

Formating is actually fast. i think my bad sriting again confused ya. it was my drive with 120GB of stuff that took 90 min. His is tking less then twenty. thats fast as far as i know, esp. for a low end CPU. Depends uon how much stuff one has on it to erase doesn't it?

Its pointless to try this again i agree. I am going ot try to do a install on his OTHER HD. That will tell me if the drive might be bad, wouldn't you agree? he told me he does'nt need the stuff on it so?

Also, he relayed to me several times the past two weeks that he was having major issues with this and that lately, and does not have any AV ,although not connected to internet, but told him earlier he needs one anyway, due to a friend buring software and music files he's downloaded and given to him. Her is like 95 % iliterate about computers. I guss its possible some little thing or things bad on that drive are messing up the whole works huh?

He is also subborn and i have to tell him things,,when he argues about stuff he does not know about. Hes a greal good frind and nice guy, just stubborn as H.

With no OS intalled, how do i run a diag. check. from the apps. link page, i'm supposed to do that somewhere when the computer boots up or what??

Thks MK for responding buddie. i hoped someone would soon enough.

[Midknyte]

You must have seen the tech tools sticky by now. Download UBCD. You don't need to have an OS to do diags. Just boot from the UBCD. I've mention Techtools so many times, I put it in my signature.

you could try installing on another drive, but you're missing the point. do your diags before you start horsing around with other stuff. if the drive fails the diag, then you have a clear answer.

a quick format should not take 20 mins. formatting does not erase the drive. it marks the sectors as safe to overwrite. if you want to clean a drive, you'd use something like DBAN (also on UBCD)

[Rabbitrunner51]

OK .. i got that and downloaded it last time ya mentioned it. I myself have not had to use it.

I've been still woirking on solving this and went into bbios and reset things and even set for optimal defaults etc... and some other to see wht it might do uon bootup and same thing.

What i did thus far is only hook up his one drive and leave the other unhooked.

The format did take about that long... lol

he wne tout to get something ot eat and i've been working on things.. I rechecked his jumpers and connections and most other, and hooked the ohter drive up and now it boots up showing both drives. At lest i did something right obvioulsy. Before i just tried with the one drive and it would bypass 'boot to CD' twice and get error message. Sometimes other things can cause this in any computer HW. Possibly the motherboard ,which is old but its a good Abit board, with same bios i got right now.
Troubleshooting is a pain and not my specialty but i try. I am good with intuitive things, and most often get things right.

The main boot CD now shows C: drive with his two partitions, where as before the one which is newer the one we tried the ODon read as the othe drive lettter. I think he had the IDE cables on wrong HD's . No wonder.

The drive we are having problems with is the D: drive now. He has his OS on the other C: drive. Now i think we can just install and or wipe that drive like i wanted to begin with and use that as the main OS drive. If the other HS checks out then itr
I WILL as you suggest use that program and or do a diag. check.

If the other problem HD ( ?) is indeed suspect, then we can find out quickly now and if not just move some stuff to that drive since its already showing being partitioned as NTFS.

Thks agian MK for responding. And yes i know i'm wordy. I gots to work on that.

[Rabbitrunner51]

update. First off i apologize once more for my bad writing and editing. i hadn't eaten all day and was on edge a bit with this.

I got everything up and running in right order of HD's and both are formated correctly. No problems in bootup and all the rest. Thks for the advice or input MK and other.

I am pretty stubborn by nature, and i told him i was going to get this right for him and i guess i deleiered big time. Today i spent quite a bit of time putting what he wanted on there, and had to find and DL his sound drivers for the NForce MB, and also a special video card driver for XFX. ( 6200 card that needed special drivers )

Turns out the IDE cables wer not on correct IDE slots for master and slave, and jumpers were a bit off too. I set the HD jumpers to cable select, rechecked in bios, and the IDE cables on right slots in order. lol

[rmanet]

He is also subborn and i have to tell him things,,when he argues about stuff he does not know about. Hes a greal good frind and nice guy, just stubborn as H.

no good deed goes unpunished....

[Rabbitrunner51]

LOL !

[BipolarBill]

Always remove the CD while rebooting so that the BIOS doesn't keep booting up initial Setup. After the BIOS screen passes, reinsert the CD so that Setup can copy files.

If you leave that bugger in, you will restart Setup until you want to puke.

PLEASE reduce your chatter and keep it short. No one wants to read a book to filter out the real problem.

Once again, less is more.

[Aznmask]

i ran into this problem before
patiton at 76319 MB ( 75733 MB free ) on a 76320 MB disk0 at ID 1 etc.... {MBR}
and it is my friend's friend pc.

Well i can't find any solution, some1 suggest me that it could be the motherboard problem. BTW i changed other harddrive it still samething.. so my confirm it is not harddrive problem.