Compaq + XP = headache

My brother recently bought an old Compaq Presario. Its about 5-6 years old. 400Mhz, 10 gig hdd, 192 megs of ram, etc, etc. Anyway, my problem is as follows. I used Partition Magic 8.0 to delete the main partition so i could re-install windows. Xp that is. Well, i am pretty sure that i got everything cleaned off, so i put in the XP upgrade disc in to reinstall windows. but ive run into numerous problems. Sometimes itll make it through the diagnostic tools that setup runs to check and see if my machine was capable. now i can get past that. the furthest ive reached is XP copying system files onto the hdd. but when it got to the ntfs.sys file, it came to that "windows shut down because it didnt want to harm your computer blue" screen. can anyone tell me something im doing wrong? if you need any more information, ill be more than willing to supply it. thanks guys!

 

If you wiped the Master boot record, I would start with a never fail 98 or ME boot disk (floppy). Once you boot from the floopy do an " fdisk /mbr " that will recreate you master boot record. If you enabled CD support when the computer booted with the floppy then go to your CD in the cmd prompt, change directories to the I386 folder and type " winnt.exe " That will restart your XP install and you should be trouble free after that.

p.s. If you do not have an old boot disk laying around then you can google " 98 boot disk " and download the files and put them on a floppy. Usually they come zipped and will extract to the floppy all in one step.

 

You don't need to use an 98SE Startup disk to do that. You can use the XP recovery console to write a new MBR and BOOTSECTOR for the HDD. If you use 98SE to fix the MBR and BootSector you will render the NTFS partition unreadable.

What you need to do here is install Win XP as if on a new HDD. There is no need to use partitioning software, like Partition Magic, to prepare the drive for XP. More times then not you will cause problems for yourself.

To install Windows XP to a new hard disk, you must start your computer by using one of the following media:

• Windows XP boot disks
• Windows XP CD-ROM

You can get Windows XP Startup disk from HERE

Note If you want to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive must be configured to do this. For information about how to configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, see the documentation that is included with your computer or contact the computer manufacturer.

To install Windows XP to a new hard disk:

1. Read the End-User License Agreement, and then press F8.

Note If your Windows XP CD-ROM is an upgrade, you are prompted to insert a CD-ROM of a previous operating system to verify upgrade compliance. Remove the Windows XP CD-ROM, and then insert the CD-ROM from your previous operating system into the CD-ROM drive. You can use the CD-ROM to upgrade from the following versions of Windows:

Windows 98
Windows 98 Second Edition
Windows Millennium Edition
Windows NT 4.0
Windows 2000 Professional​

2. When you are prompted for the Windows XP CD-ROM, remove your previous operating system CD-ROM, and then insert your Windows XP CD-ROM.

3. To install Windows XP by starting the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM, insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.

4. When you see the "Press any key to boot from CD" message, press any key to start the computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.

5. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to start Windows XP Setup.

6. Follow the instructions on the screen to select and format a partition where you want to install Windows XP.

7. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Windows XP Setup.

PS. For the benefit of anyone else reading this thread using a Windows 98/ME Startup disk is not how you fix problems with XP.