Attempted reinstall of XP just ends up running recovery console!

[Guest]

I've got a laptop that I decided to clean out. It was running XP Pro SP2
without recovery console.
I booted from the XP SP2 install disk, it did it's thang, but instead of
starting setup at the end of all the blue startup screens, it always just
runs recovery console.
I tried formatting the C: partition under RC and rebooting - same thing. I
repartitioned (removed both partitions) and rebooted, assuming that an old RC
install may be hanging over from the previous install, but no - still just
runs RC.
Once RC is running, I can diskpart and format the HDD, and the CD filesystem
is there, I can see all the files - but I can't run anything, and I can't NOT
run RC!
Can someone help please?
(BTW - this is a perfectly normal, bog-standard, garden-variety, plain
vanilla system, it's been running XP since 2002 with no probs, I just wanted
to do a fresh install. The same CD boots in my main system and runs setup
with no hiccups - just the laptop seems to freak XP out)

 

[Guest]

Recovery console boot option can only be installed before SP2,not after,
although its still available thru booting to xp cd,not SP2 cd install
disk...Youre
symptoms are not possible with running only xp SP2 cd....Better yet,remove
xp SP2 cd from the cdrom,install xp pro cd,boot to pro,recovery,typeiskPart
in DiskPart,delete the partitions,create one,press ESC key,type:EXIT Reboot
to xp cd,select,install xp....

 

[Guest]

Yeah, that doesn't seem possible - but it's a genuine XP install CD, and
that's the exact problem!

After multiple (!) reboots and config checks, I decided to hit F8 when the
"Starting Windows" appears in the grey bar at the bottom of the setup screen
(i.e. the last step) - and it actually started the setup! It's formatting at
the moment, but I'll see if that F8 thing happens again. I doubt it, why
would the setup allow interruption (apart from F6/F2 for RAID/ASR, of
course!) at that point?

Still, after at least 20 reboots and tests where the recovery console
appeared, this time it's working...

I have a sneaking suspicion that at the time setup starts, any kind of
hardware not ready error may cause setup to start the RC, but again, why? In
22 years of windows, I've never seen this happen when the hardware is
working, is supported, and nothing else bad is happening (like bad power,
etc, or locked default drivers).

Watch this space...