XP Install will not restart after copying files to hard drive

[Guest]

Attempting Clean install. Repartioned drive w/ XP setup disk. Setup formats
and copies files to partition, but when system restarts setup does not
continue. Just get blue screen with mouse cursor.

 

[Malke]

Attempting Clean install. Repartioned drive w/ XP setup disk. Setup formats
and copies files to partition, but when system restarts setup does not
continue. Just get blue screen with mouse cursor.

Not enough information to get focused troubleshooting. You haven't told
us anything about your computer, why you decided to do a clean install, etc.

Most failures to install an operating system are because of faulty
hardware. Since I don't know anything about your hardware, that's as
specific as I can get.

This link will show you what details to include in your next post:
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


Malke

 

[Guest]

All hardware appears to be working; no error messages. System will boot from
hard drive or CD. Can boot from CD and begin new installation. When I boot
from hard drive after install stalls, drive is recognized and get "Restarting
installation" message, then it goes nowhere.

 

[Malke]

All hardware appears to be working; no error messages. System will boot from
hard drive or CD. Can boot from CD and begin new installation. When I boot
from hard drive after install stalls, drive is recognized and get "Restarting
installation" message, then it goes nowhere.

Not getting error messages in an operating system does not tell you that
all hardware is working. Once again, you haven't told me anything about
your computer's hardware. I really can't help you without knowing more.
I'm very sorry, but if you won't read the information at the "good post"
link and provide some details, I can't possibly give you focused help.

As a generalization, when you're having difficulties installing an
operating system, strip everything out of the machine except for one
hard drive, one optical drive, RAM (after you have extensively tested
the RAM with something like Memtest86+), and a video card. If you have a
specialized video card, pull it and install with a plain vanilla one.
The only peripherals attached should be a standard keyboard and mouse
(ps/2 if possible).


Malke

 

[Guest]

Read info at GoodPost, but still not sure what info you need or how to get
it. Our desktop is a Dell Dimension E310 with a Pentium 4 processor, 512 MB
Ram, and a SATA 160 GB hard drive. Also have a CDRW and separate DVDRW. Do
not have motherboard/video card info.

Just for grins I attempted to install Vista with my laptop Setup disk and it
installed without any problem, but still would not restart when attempted to
install xp.

 

[Malke]

Read info at GoodPost, but still not sure what info you need or how to get
it. Our desktop is a Dell Dimension E310 with a Pentium 4 processor, 512 MB
Ram, and a SATA 160 GB hard drive. Also have a CDRW and separate DVDRW. Do
not have motherboard/video card info.

Just for grins I attempted to install Vista with my laptop Setup disk and it
installed without any problem, but still would not restart when attempted to
install xp.

I don't understand your last paragraph. If your computer would not
restart after "attempted to install xp" when you used a different XP
install CD, it didn't install without any problem.

You need to use the Dell restore disks, restore image, or CD/DVD that
came with your system.

You need to answer the question about why you felt the need to do a
clean install. What problems were you having?


Malke

 

[Guest]

The install that worked without any problem was from a Vista install disk.

Thanks for your help. I was hoping it might be a common problem with a
simple solution, like an obscure bios setting or missing system files. I
will contact Dell and get a restore disk.

Thanks again for your time.

 

[Xandros]

As Malke says it is important for us to know what problems you were having
that led to your need to do a new install. Some folks say that they thought
this would cure what they believe to be spyware or other issues when the
problem was actually hardware related. Your problem could be a faulty hard
drive, flaky RAM, motherboard problems or even a power supply issue.

BTW I assume you installed the drivers for your SATA drive (press F6 and
insert driver disc) when you were prompted to do so.