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Problem installing XP - Please Help!

P

Peteballaghaderreen

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Joined
Sep 7, 2007
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System Specs
Processor Core 2 Quad 8300
Memory 8 GB
Video Card(s) Geforce 210 512MB
Storage 750 GB (internal) 640 GB (external)
Display(s) Philips 230C1HSB 23" Full HD
Audio Device(s) Asus Xonar D2PM High Def
Power Supply 330W
Software windows 7 home premium
I built a PC, and installed Windows Vista on it.

After a while, I got sick of Vista, and wanted to go back to XP. I bought a genuine OEM copy of Windows XP Professional, and made a partition on my hard drive to install XP on it, as I thought Vista will be useful to still have in years to come. So I created this partition using Disk Management in Vista.

I put in the XP Pro disk. It asked me where would I like to install it, so I said D:, the partition I had created. So it formated it NTFS, copied files to installation folders, then it said Saving Configuration . . . . .Restarting Computer . . . . and it restarted. Then when it rebooted from the CD it started the whole process over again. I can't get past this step,even though I have tried loads of times. What's going on?? I tried to boot from hard disk, but it just said "Error loading Operating System"

Any help much appreciated
 
Run once through the disk cycle, then don't press a key to boot from CD. It needs to boot from HDD on it's own, just make sure the BIOS is set to boot from HDD second or third.
 
hmmm thats odd you should have atleast gotten a os selection menu....try booting the xp cd go into repair mode and do the follwiong commands...


fixboot

fixmbr
 
Thanks for the quick responses.

I tried to boot from HD, but it said error loading operating system. Is it a problem with my hard drive? Should I delete Vista from C: Partition 1 first or would that make any difference?
 
sounds like it really screwed up your boot loader....try the methods i suggested above or run this command...chkdsk /r
 
when dual booting u have to install xp first then vista
 
AthlonX2 said:
when dual booting u have to install xp first then vista
Click to expand...

2nd you should also make it diff disks becuase most of the time youll get like an ntdlr error or something they dont play well on the smae disk case in point..iv learned the hard way to many times
 
I'm trying to completely format the entire hard drive, partition C: and D:. I can delete D okay, and it now says unpartitioned space. C: is a bit harder. I tried to format using the Recovery Console, but it needed an admin password. I never set up such a password so I don't know what it is. I'm trying now to delete partition C: from Windows setup. It says the following message

The partition you tried to delete is a system partition.

System partitions may contain diagnostic or hardware configuration programs, programs to start operating systems or other manufacturer-supplied programs.

Delete a system partition only if you are sure that it contains no such programs or if you are willing to lose them. Deleting a system partition may prevent your computer from starting from the hard disk until you complete installation of Windows XP.

What should i do? I think only Vista is installed on the Hard Drive, i don't mind losing that. Will it delete anything vital? I just want the hard drive completely formatted so i can install XP Pro.

Thanks in advance
 
no go ahead and format it nothing bad will happen....and if it wont do it...iv got a link to a really good format prog you can use that will kill any hdd down to the bare min. its called deriks boot and nuke
 
to put it into persepctive xp would be like


(xp) format. (HDD) no (xp) please? (HDD) no (xp) aww:(

weras boot and nuke

(DBAN) format (HDD) no (DBAN):mad: bitch *smack8 (HDD) ok im sorry:cry:
 
Okay thanks for that. It now says my whole hard drive is unpartitioned space. and it's formatting the entire drive NTFS. Hopefully it will work now! If not, could it be a motherboard/bios problem?
 
no trust me youll be fine now...it was vista making life all sorts of hard.
 
Okay format is nearly complete. just a quick lastminute double check. When it restarts,
I don't boot from disk, just let it boot from hard Drive, right?
Do I take out disk?
 
no, it'll need it for the next stage. Just don't touch it until it gets to the Windows load screen. (yes, boot from hdd)
 
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