Desperate to recover from set-up hanging pls help

  • Thread starter Thread starter JEH
  • Start date Start date
J

JEH

I have tried 6 times now to install XP Home on my
computer. (Compaq Presario model 168217-003 - everything
USB no legacy mouse or keyboard connects). Everything
goes great until it gets down to 1 minute to
go...uninstalling setup files. At this point the
computer simply hangs. On reboot it starts the entire
install over and then hangs at the same point. What can
I do? Can I go in with a WIN98 boot disk and delete
files manually? (I tried to delete the C;/windows/temp
file and it didn't change anything). I am not sure what
to do. This was to be an upgrade. I cannot even revert
to WINME (at least I don't know how to). I do not want
to wipe the drive and lose all my info. I would
appreciate any help!! Thanks - JEH.
 
As far as saving data, at the worst-case, you can do a non-
upgrade Windows XP isntall, choose to insall on the
existing partition, choose not to alter the partition, and
this should allow a "parallel install".

If this fails, it would be because the other copy of
Windows is being detected even though it isn't finished
and active yet. In this case, if you have a FAT32
partition (which you almost certainly do since you
upgraded from ME), then you could boot to a floppy and
RENAME the WINDOWS folder to WINDOWS_old. Don't delete the
folder, because it contains some of your personal data.
Then you should be able to try the fresh install to the
existing partition again and it should work.

The bad thing about this type of install is that Windows
won't have any idea about your previously-installed
applications. But at least you'll be booted and have
access to all your data.
 
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