XP Installation Problem - weird

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shaun Hately
  • Start date Start date
S

Shaun Hately

Last weekend I took possession of a new PC - mainly purchased in order
to upgrade to Windows XP (I've been using 98 for years). I've had a
few problems over the last week with various errors, culminating this
morning with a PC that simply wouldn't boot up at all.

I decided to try and reinstall XP and I've run into a bit of a
problem. I purchased the OEM of Windows XP Home (apparently with SP2)
with this PC, and I had assumed I'd got a 'full' version. When I try
to reinstall though, it describes itself as an ugrade version and asks
me to insert a valid disc from an earlier version of Windows. I am, as
I say, a bit confused by this as I had assumed I was getting a
standalone version, but as I have the original discs for Windows 95
and Windows 98, for the moment, I have just put one of those in to
proceed.

This is where the major problem becomes apparent - the setup process
seems to acknowledge those discs and asks me to reinsert the XP CD-ROM
but at that point, setup informs me that it cannot find the necessary
files to proceed with the installation on the XP disc.

Has anyone encountered similar behaviour and might be able to explain
it.

I've already lost most of the weekend dealing with this issue, and I
have a hard deadline for a project of next Friday. At the moment I am
feeling seriously unimpressed with the stability of XP, I have to say.
 
Contact the dealer or the manufacturer, as you should have received a full
version of Windows XP - not an upgrade version.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
For the moment, disregard the Upgrade vs Full version issue.

You do not indicate what was being done to fix your faulty Xp system.

No matter what version of Xp installation CD you have, if you were trying to
'repair' the non functioning installation of Xp, then you should have been
folowing these steps. If you do this, then you will have a running system
again.

Insert the Windows Xp CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and
then restart your computer.

When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen,
press a key to start your computer from the Windows Xp CD.

Your computer must be configured to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
For more information about how to configure your computer BIOS to start from
the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, see your computer's documentation or contact
your computer manufacturer.

You receive the following message on the Welcome to Setup screen that
appears:

This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft Windows XP to run on
your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

At this time Press ENTER to set up Windows XP.

On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the
license agreement.

Next step, make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is
selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP. [As distinct from
R in the previous phase which launches the recovery console].

After you repair Windows Xp, you may have to reactivate your copy of Windows
Xp.

It may be necessary to make a phone call and speak with a Microsoft
representative to explain why this is happening and get an activation code
over the phone.
 
Last weekend I took possession of a new PC - mainly purchased in order
to upgrade to Windows XP (I've been using 98 for years). I've had a
few problems over the last week with various errors, culminating this
morning with a PC that simply wouldn't boot up at all.

I decided to try and reinstall XP and I've run into a bit of a
problem. I purchased the OEM of Windows XP Home (apparently with SP2)
with this PC, and I had assumed I'd got a 'full' version. When I try
to reinstall though, it describes itself as an ugrade version and asks
me to insert a valid disc from an earlier version of Windows. I am, as
I say, a bit confused by this as I had assumed I was getting a
standalone version, but as I have the original discs for Windows 95
and Windows 98, for the moment, I have just put one of those in to
proceed.

This is where the major problem becomes apparent - the setup process
seems to acknowledge those discs and asks me to reinsert the XP CD-ROM
but at that point, setup informs me that it cannot find the necessary
files to proceed with the installation on the XP disc.

Has anyone encountered similar behaviour and might be able to explain
it.

I've already lost most of the weekend dealing with this issue, and I
have a hard deadline for a project of next Friday. At the moment I am
feeling seriously unimpressed with the stability of XP, I have to say.
Click to expand...
If you have a Win98 system boot disk, set your system to boot from floppy,
use that to boot to DOS and format the drive. Then set your system to boot
from CD, install XP, you will be asked again to insert the Win98 CD. Do it.
Then insert XP CD. It sounds to me like you are trying to install an
original HOME over a SP1 or SP2 install that is borked. So it's best to
start all over with a formatted hard disk and do a clean install.
 
NO! Don't do that!

If this is an OEMcopy, sometimes they set them up in a dicky way. If you
start by blowing away partitions then you may be blowing away the only real
copy of XP at hand. Sometimes the CD kicks off the install from a hidden
partition on your HDD.

Speak to the reseller, or MS and be honest about what & why. If you fib to
MS they will know as the CD key on the side of the box identifies the
manufacturer...Some try to use the CD's in other machines and MS practically
hangs up on these people (pirates).
 
i hope "bar" is online. his is the only info i can find, anywhere, that even
remotely mentions the prob i am having with my dad's pc. (dad currently is
spitting tacks, HELP!) i need to either finish setting up XP from 98[2nd Ed]
or get rid of it totally and go back to the 98. my dad prefers the later,
although i'd really like him to be able to use high-speed. regardless, i
need to fix it a.s.a.p.
when started the pc appears to go into dos and asks you select microsoft
windows or xp. if you don't arrow to windows it automatically blue screen's
and ends up where "bar" says. however once i hit enter to continue set-up
the next blue screen wants me to chose a partition and offers only one
[FAT32], which i am making my screenname as it is just how i feel when i open
up cosmo. even if i chose the partition it just goes onto more stuff i don't
get and doesn't work. if i arrow to windows it suggests command prompt and
run scanreg. when i type this in at c: prompt it says "bad file...etc".
anyway, does anyone have any ideas? all ideas will be greatly
appreciated?(even those that suggest baseball bats or my moving to guam.)
THANKS TONS!

BAR said:
For the moment, disregard the Upgrade vs Full version issue.

You do not indicate what was being done to fix your faulty Xp system.

No matter what version of Xp installation CD you have, if you were trying to
'repair' the non functioning installation of Xp, then you should have been
folowing these steps. If you do this, then you will have a running system
again.

Insert the Windows Xp CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and
then restart your computer.

When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen,
press a key to start your computer from the Windows Xp CD.

Your computer must be configured to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
For more information about how to configure your computer BIOS to start from
the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, see your computer's documentation or contact
your computer manufacturer.

You receive the following message on the Welcome to Setup screen that
appears:

This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft Windows XP to run on
your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

At this time Press ENTER to set up Windows XP.

On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the
license agreement.

Next step, make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is
selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP. [As distinct from
R in the previous phase which launches the recovery console].

After you repair Windows Xp, you may have to reactivate your copy of Windows
Xp.

It may be necessary to make a phone call and speak with a Microsoft
representative to explain why this is happening and get an activation code
over the phone.





Richard Urban said:
Contact the dealer or the manufacturer, as you should have received a full
version of Windows XP - not an upgrade version.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Shaun said:
Last weekend I took possession of a new PC - mainly purchased in order
to upgrade to Windows XP (I've been using 98 for years). I've had a
few problems over the last week with various errors, culminating this
morning with a PC that simply wouldn't boot up at all.

I decided to try and reinstall XP and I've run into a bit of a
problem. I purchased the OEM of Windows XP Home (apparently with SP2)
with this PC, and I had assumed I'd got a 'full' version. When I try
to reinstall though, it describes itself as an ugrade version and asks
me to insert a valid disc from an earlier version of Windows. I am, as
I say, a bit confused by this as I had assumed I was getting a
standalone version, but as I have the original discs for Windows 95
and Windows 98, for the moment, I have just put one of those in to
proceed.

This is where the major problem becomes apparent - the setup process
seems to acknowledge those discs and asks me to reinsert the XP CD-ROM
but at that point, setup informs me that it cannot find the necessary
files to proceed with the installation on the XP disc.

Has anyone encountered similar behaviour and might be able to explain
it.

I've already lost most of the weekend dealing with this issue, and I
have a hard deadline for a project of next Friday. At the moment I am
feeling seriously unimpressed with the stability of XP, I have to say.
Click to expand...

I would make sure I got a legit version of XP. Even a OEM CD should work
just like a retail version.


---
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http://www.avast.com
 
AFAIK, there is no such thing as an upgrade only OEM version of XP.

Rereading your posts, it sounds like you may have disc drive problems.

If the PC is new and you do have an OEM CD that was acquired separately (IE
it is not say a Dell or Compaq etclabelled "Recovery CD", but a real
Microsoft Windows XP OEM CD) then I would completely reformat the disc drive
by running setup again booting off the CD and deleting all partitions on the
computer - there should be only 1 partition there already.This will delete
everything on the HDD.

During XP set, you will have the choice of where to install a new copy of
XP - you can delete the existing partition at that point, create a new one
and the next step will be a Format. If the disk drive is faulty then there
is likely to be errors during the format phase (bar graph across the screen,
takes a while). If not, the copy file phase may report write errors.It is
possible that minor errors are either fixed or 'hidden' during the format
phase - so if you do get XP installed, run disc drive error checking say
daily initially for a while to ensure no errors exist on the drive.

(double click My Computer, right click on your C drive, click Properties,
then Tools. Error Checking is at the top. If you select to Auto fix errors
or Scan for bad sectors - recommended - you will need to reboot and it will
take quite a while).

BOL and post back if you need more help...
 
Where did you purchase your OEM cd of XP Home? If you got it on eBay then
it might be a branded cd from the time when XP was just coming out. Many
manufacturer's did issue OEM upgrade cd's to users who bought their
computers with ME installed and a coupon for the upgrade to XP when
released. This was in the last few months before XP went to market. This
is the only type of XP cd that I know of that is only capable of doing an
upgrade.

Another possibility is that you are misinterpreting 'OEM'. An OEM cd will
say on the hologrammed surface that it is "for installation on a new
computer only."

Otherwise, in order for the installer to be asking for verification of a
previous Windows product the cd has to be a retail cd and not an OEM cd.
All XP retail cd's are capable of doing either an upgrade or a clean
install, but the upgrade edition will request previous product verification
before doing a clean install.
 
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