XP Installation Error on New Hard Drive

[Guest]

I had two drives in my PC. I reformatted my data drive (the bigger one) using
Maxtor MaxBlast 4 setting it up as a new NTFS boot drive. I then copied all
the files from my boot drive to the newly formatted drive, again using
MaxBlast 4. Now the machine won't boot.

I removed my old boot drive and went about trying to do a fresh XP install
on the newly formatted drive. When I attempt to do this, I get a message that
there has been an "...internal error" to the effect that there is no place to
locate the swap file.

I also get this on a brand new 100G drive I just happed to have. Seems there
is no way to do a complete new clean install.

 

[DL]

The winxp cd is bootable and contains the utilities to Partition/format the
drive.
Disconnect any hd other than the C drive, then start again
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I removed my old boot drive and went about trying to do a fresh XP
install on the newly formatted drive. When I attempt to do this, I
get a message that there has been an "...internal error" to the
effect that there is no place to locate the swap file.

I also get this on a brand new 100G drive I just happed to have.
Seems there is no way to do a complete new clean install.

How are you trying to do this? Are you doing it correctly? Just boot from
the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if necessary to accomplish
this) and follow the prompts for a clean installation (delete the existing
partition by pressing "D" when prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp.htm

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

 

[Guest]

Thanks folks. No joy though. I've been able to boot from CD from the get go.
I've got one HDD (100GB Maxtor) installed and one each CD-R and DVD-R
installed.

My OEM CD menu offers 4 choices;
1. To Partition drive C: with FDISK.EXE
2. To format drive C: with FORMAT.COM
3. To install Windows XP with Default Settings
4. To exit

FDISK shows an approx. 30GB Disk as opposed to the 100GB it shows as in the
MaxBlast 4.0 prep software.

I've borrowed a genuine XP Pro CD and it behaves normally, I just don't
complete the install because it's not my license, however when I select 3.
"Install Windows XP.....", I immediately receive the "An internal Setup error
has occurred. Could not find a place for a swap file. Setup cannot continue.
Press ENTER to exit."

Is there something in the PC internal cache or BIOS that is linked to the
original XP Home installation that is preventing a normal install?

I gotta admit that I'm really stumped with this one.

 

[DL]

You dont have a winxp installation CD you have a recovery cd supplied by
your PC supplier, it appears that it is locked to, if not the origonal HD,
then to the size of the origonal HD.
You could try Option1, 2 then 3
If it works you will be left with C drive of 30gb, then in win Disk
Management you should see some free space which you can then partition

I dont kow if this would work