XP start failure, incompatible partition

[John DeStefano]

I have a problem with a new installation XP Pro: seems to boot as
normal, and gets to the blue "Loading personal settings" screen with
the Windows logo, but it doesn't display the words, just the logo.
The system doesn't appear to be locked, as the mouse still moves
around, but it never goes beyond this point. I let it sit for over an
hour with no progress.

I tried to do a repair install over this installation, but the disc
install script said the partition that XP was installed on was
"incompatible" with XP. After a few hours of playing with this, I
decided to try and start over with a fresh install, and even after
deleting the XP partition on the disk (there are other partitions, but
this was a primary partition), XP won't install and gives the same
"incompatible" error.

Is there a chance that someone is familiar with the first problem,
where XP stalled at the loading screen? Or with the incompatible
partition issue? Is there a way to get past this and try the
installation again?

Thank you,
~John

 

[JS]

How to do a Clean Install of Windows XP

Change the BIOS setting to Boot from CD drive first.
Then see below:

From Michael Steven's: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
more info: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm
and: http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_installation_of_windows_xp.htm
also: http://www.bootdisk.com/

Also make sure you have the drivers you need for your motherboard, video
card, sound card, Etc.

JS

 

[John DeStefano]

Thanks JS.

I've essentially been performing a procedure similar to that on
Michael Stevens's page, but I get stuck at Steps 10 and 11, since the
partition that I want to install XP on is being called "incompatible"
by the XP CD, even though that is the partition on which XP was
installed, until I chose to "delete" the same partition during a
recovery installation attempt. But even before I deleted the
partition, the XP CD called it "incompatible".

 

[JS]

Did you use third party software to create the other partitions?

JS

 

[John DeStefano]

Did you use third party software to create the other partitions?

JS

Yes and no: I did use a partition manager (Gparted) to create and size
raw partitions, but not to format them; that was done using the OS
installations themselves (XP Pro, XP x64, Vista). All of them
installed without error.

 

[JS]

Can you use that software to report (non destructively) on what it see about
these partitions now?

JS

 

[John DeStefano]

Can you use that software to report (non destructively) on what it see about
these partitions now?

JS

Yes: GParted reported normal NTFS partitions for all three Windows
OSes, and their data was completely intact and uncorrupt.

As it turns out, it seems that the XP partition, as well as the XP
installation disc, suddenly realized that another hard disk had been
installed. What caused this sudden epiphany? I'm really not sure.
But the fact that the new hard drive was ahead of the drive on which
XP was installed kept XP from booting normally, and it also kept the
XP installation script from recognizing the existing XP partition as
"compatible".

To solve the boot problem, I had to disable the new hard drive in the
BIOS and make XP think it was installed on the first drive in the boot
sequence. This also fixed the "incompatible" error with the XP
installation disc.

I would still like to know why this happened in the first place: how
XP's awareness of the other hard disk suddenly "changed" and won't
boot while it was active. But more importantly, I'd like to know why
there were no errors reported by XP while it tried to boot up, just
the normal, blue loading screen showing indefinitely, instead of
telling me that it wouldn't boot properly because of the other drive.
I got similar results with verbose logging and Safe Mode: I never saw
any indication of a problem, except that they just never finished
loading the OS.

~John

 

[JS]

You can start by looking at the boot.ini file. Also check the new drive's
jumper to verify it is set to 'Slave'.

JS

 

[John DeStefano]

You can start by looking at the boot.ini file. Also check the new drive's
jumper to verify it is set to 'Slave'.

JS

Good ideas. Thanks!

Jumper is set to "CS" (cable select). However, the disks are on
different channels: the new disk was IDE/ATA, and the XP disc was
internal SATA, and for some reason, the system puts the ATA channel
before SATA.

I'll look into boot.ini ... but if this were incorrect, wouldn't it
keep XP from trying to boot at all? How would it get to the point
where it was timing out (the "loading preferences" screen), and then
fail (or just spin its wheels)?

Thanks,
~John

 

[JS]

Just a suggestion: open Disk Manager and see which disk (Sata or IDE/ATA)
shows up as Disk 0 (if you are able to) after setting the new drive jumper
to 'Slave'.

JS