Windows XP fails to install - help needed

Hello, I need help with a system that is unable to install Windows XP. Here's what happened, in chronological order. The problem occurred on a friend's pc.

After an unsuccessful attempt to install Ubuntu Linux as a second OS, my friend had to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows XP because it became unbootable after the Linux installation process which had failed. At first, Windows XP installation process goes well, files are copied to hard drive, then it reboots and attempts to resume the installation. The Windows XP logo appears on the black screen and the progress bar below passes a couple of times, then all freezes. After resetting, the same thing happens. I had my friend disassemble the whole computer, remove any additional pieces of hardware that are not essential for installing and running Windows - remove the PCI video card FX5500, usb devices that were connected, modem, external floppy. Left only one of the RAM sticks (they're 2x512 MB). Not sure if each of them was tested separately in a different slot.

After we couldn't get Windows XP to install, we installed Ubuntu, which detected all hardware correctly and runs fine on that computer. Then we installed VMWare on Ubuntu and inside the virtual machine, Windows XP installed just fine. Using Acronis True Image, we created an image of that Windows XP virtual installation and restored it to a partition on the physical hard drive, since it seemed like the only way to get XP installed somehow. Then exactly the same thing happens - it freezes when the Windows logo is on the black background with the progress bar moving. Safe Mode fails to boot as well.

I should add that prior to the first attempt to install Ubuntu, the computer has been running Windows XP with no problems at all. No hardware changes were made when the problem occurred.

That's about it, and I'll appreciate any help or ideas. Thanks for your time.

 

It sounds like possibly the partition your Windows XP is on has been partially corrupted.

You will probably need to find some software on the internet that can check for bad partitions.

Hope this helps.

 

Impossible, the Windows setup created a new partition and did a full format, that would mark the bad sectors if there were any. And Linux runs fine on the same hard hard drive, same partition. But thanks for replying.

 

Hi Try this i had a similar make a startup disk on a floppy and add delpart (can be downloaded from the net) start the computer with the disk and run delpart from the dos prompt. then install xp (should give you a clean install as it will see the hdd an new) if you still have problems change the ram for a new stick. Hope this is of some help.

 

Hi. You might try downloading Active@Killdisk, creating the floppy with it, and completely wiping the hard drive. Then, using a suitable boot floppy (I use a Windows Me boot floppy), use fdisk to partition your hard drive. Then, try reinstalling xp and see what you get. This is the general procedure I use. Good night and good luck.

 

Have you made any progress at solving this, or do you still need help?

 

Haven't had the chance to try swapping the memory chips yet. Gonna try one of these days, but if you have any suggestions, I'll appreciate your help.

 

First off, I don't see how this problem could be related to the RAM...

My best advice would be to download whatever drive utilities the drive maker provides (DataLifeGuard for WD drives, SeaTools for Seagate drives, or whatever software applies to your particular harddrive), then use it to "zero-fill" the entire harddrive, which can take HOURS, depending on the size of the drive you're working on.

I've had a lot of success by zero-filling corrupted drives; some of the utilities refer to the zero-fill software as a tool for low-level formatting a drive, though they do NOT actually perform a low-level format. Regardless of the terminology used, the various programs zero-fill the drive, which restores it to factory conditions (unpartitioned / unformatted), assuming there is no physical damage to the drive...

Keep in mind that Linux and Windows partition and format drives differently, because they use different file systems; just because Linux will install on the drive now does NOT mean that Windows can be installed successfully. I've been able to save a LOT of money over the years, rescuing "junk" drives that other people INSISTED were unusable. Seems to me that you have nothing to lose by trying my methods; if you can't find the software you need, or if zero-filling the drive doesn't correct the problem and allow Windows to install successfully, let me know and I'll try to help you decide what to do next.

WinXP Pro has the DiskProbe utility, though I hesitate trying to instruct you how to use it in a public forum, and to be honest, it will be a LOT better if you learn how to zero-fill the drive with the manufacturer's utilities, because that is a skill you might need multiple times in the future. The more often you do it, the more you'll realize how much zero-filling a drive can do to make a corrupted drive usable again.

Good luck; let us know how this turns out for you. If you decide you don't want to do this, sell me the drive CHEAP; I'll be glad to turn your "paperweight" into a functional drive again...

 

Thanks a lot for your information. I'll try what you suggested and will let you know how it turns out. My friend ran a disk erase operation using Wininternals ERD Commander right after the first failed attempt to install Linux. Now I wonder if it might have actually caused the problem in the first place. I guess there's nothing to lose anyway, so I'll try zero-filling and will post back the results. Thanks again.

[edit] BTW, swapping memory chips in all possible combinations and stripping all inessencial hardware didn't solve anything.

 

Hi. I do believe Active@KillDisk will allow to over-write the contents of your hard drive with all zeroes. I have not tried Malware's methods, but the DOS utility, fdisk will allow you to delete non-DOS partitions and create new ones of your choosing. Certainly, they are FAT32 and not NTFS, the preferred filesystem for XP, but you can reformat FAT32 partitions as NTFS when doing the new XP install. As with any formatting procedure, don't hope to recover anything after it's done. Good night and good luck.

 

Thanks, I'll have that program in mind, but first I'll see if I can find a disk utulity by the hard drive vendor. Partition managing is not a problem under the circumstances, neither is losing data. Zero-filling will destroy all partitioning and data anyway.

 

Let's review a few things here...

First of all, the fact that Linux installs on the HDD without a problem tells you that the drive itself probably doesn't have any PHYSICAL problems, so that shouldn't be a concern.

Next, Windows WON'T install; I can only guess that your friend is attempting to use NTFS, since you haven't mentioned anything about FAT32, and NTFS is the DEFAULT file system used by WinXP.

Those two facts alone should tell you that the installation furballs you've encountered are WINDOWS-specific; logically, there is some data written somewhere on the drive (NOT in the main data-storage areas, more likely in the MBR) that is adversely affecting the installation of WinXP.

If you have any disk-editing utilities handy (I prefer to use DiskProbe from within Windows XP (which is included with WinXP Pro ONLY), and Partition Editor from a boot-up floppy), you could do some low-level disk-editing to manually wipe ALL data on the drive, though that is time consuming at best. With a zero-fill tool, you can boot the defective system from a CD or floppy disk, run the zero-fill utility, then walk away from the system for 12 - 24 hours (depending on the capacity of the HDD) while ALL areas of the drive are wiped clean. Trust me on this; I've done it both ways, and when there is no data worth saving on the drive, zero-filling is a MUCH better way to handle this. Of course, if you WERE trying to preserve data, you would HAVE to use a disk-editor; zero-filling would not even be an option.

To my knowledge, all of the vendor's utilities allow you to do a "quick-fill" of the defective drive; critical areas of the drive (such as the MBR) are wiped clean, while the main data storage areas are left untouched. Though I've used that method many times, I still prefer to wipe ALL areas of a HDD, even though it means I have to be willing to wait HOURS for the utility to complete the zero-fill operation. Luckily, I have several systems on my home network, so that isn't a problem for me; I don't mind having one system tied up during the zero-fill process, though for those who only own one computer, I'll admit that it can be a major inconvenience.

Keep in mind that most of the MS-DOS utilities are REALLY primitive, with both DELPART and FDISK in that category. DELPART first shipped with DOS 5.0, while FDISK first appeared with DOS 2.0. Though both have been improved upon over the years, they are not what anyone would ever consider "polished" utilities...

I'm not a big fan of DELPART; I used it a LOT back in the days when I ran WFW3.11 on top of DOS 5 on a 420MB HDD, but in the last few years, I've had some weird problems when using it on really large harddrives. It is somewhat crude, though I freely admit that I had a lot of success with it before drive sizes started exceeding about 60 - 75 GB...

Of course, no matter how crude DELPART and FDISK are, they don't come close to using DEBUG to wipe a drive; talk about primitive methods of hosing data! NOTHING is as brutal as running a Debug script to wipe the partition table on a harddrive, though I admit, it has ALWAYS worked without fail, regardless of the size of the drive I've used it on. I do NOT recommend using Debug scripting to anyone who isn't already familiar with using Debug; it shows NO mercy if things go wrong.

I've also used the free version of Active@Killdisk previously, but I specifically suggested zero-filling the drive with the manufacturer's disk tools because then you would have more tools and options than you would with Active@Killdisk alone. It is a good tool, and works as claimed, but there will probably be times when you need more disk-tools at your disposal than a simple zero-fill utility. As good as it is, Active@Killdisk is a one-trick pony, though I do have it on a bootable DOS floppy in my repair kit for those times when I ONLY need to zero-fill a drive...

The last thing to keep in mind is that you should NOT use ANY version of FDISK to partition any harddrive larger than 137GB, unless you decide you don't need the remaining storage capacity. Just last week, I had to back up a drive for a friend, then wipe it and reinstall WinXP. Last month, he used a WinME boot disk to re-partition and re-format his 200 GB Maxtor HDD, not realizing he would not be able to access ALL of the drive. He created an 8 GB, FAT32 primary partition (I have no idea why), then formatted the rest of the drive with NTFS from Disk Management within WinXP. Apparently, he didn't realize that he would not be able to use ALL of the space on the drive, until his son asked him why more than 60 GB of the 200 GB drive was "missing"... which is why he called me to "fix" the harddrive...

Keep us posted on your progress...

 

It's a 80 GB Seagate. No data worth keeping on it. The Windows partition was formatted with NTFS. We'll get the seagate tool provided on this page http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html , and I'll post back when there are results. Thanks a lot for your time.

 

Ok, despite the expectations, the full zero-fill didn't have any effect. Windows still fails to install. What's left to do now?

 

Well, there are still a few things we can do to try to correct this problem. We'll try the faster / simpler options first, and only escalate to the uber-geek stuff if needed.

Believe it or not, your first best option now that you've already tried to zero-fill the drive with the Seagate SeaTools utility, is to create the bootable floppy with Active@KillDisk. I suggest you download the full executable program itself (rather than only downloading the basic ZIP file), which will create the bootable floppy disk when you run the program.

The bootable floppy disk creating program is here:

http://download2.lsoft.net/killdiskfloppysetup.exe

Save it to your Desktop, then put an unused floppy disk into the A: drive. If you don't have a clean floppy disk, use one that you no longer need; the disk creation program will format the floppy disk, and any data already on it will be wiped clean.

Next, disconnect any OTHER HDDs from the defective system; be sure to disconnect both the power cable and the data cable, so you won't risk damaging data on any other HDD.

Then, boot the system with the defective HDD using the bootable floppy. Be sure the system BIOS is set to boot from the floppy drive BEFORE it attempts to boot from the HDD.

Once the system is booted to the A: prompt, type "KILLDISK" (no quotes), and press Enter. You should then see a list of all detected drives on the system; hopefully, you'll only see the floppy drive itself, and the 80 GB Seagate drive listed. Use the arrow keys to choose the HDD (or the partition on it) that you want to clean; when you've highlighted the defective HDD, press the F10 key, and you'll see the Configuration box. At that point, simply follow the prompts to begin the disk erasing process. In the Confirm Action box, you'll need to type "ERASE-ALL-DATA" (no quotes), and press Enter. That last step gives you one last chance to change your mind before the program begins deleting the data on the drive, so be sure you have selected the correct drive before you press the Enter key.

Once the process begins, you can stop it by pressing the ESC key, but any data already overwritten will be lost. If any bad clusters are found, you will see them listed on the Interactive screen. If that happens, you can continue erasing data, or you can press the ESC key to stop the process.

When the data erasing process is completed, you will see an on-screen report, which will include information about any bad clusters that might have been found during the procedure. The report is also saved to the floppy disk, so you can review it later as needed.

Well, I hope this information helps you; let us know how this turns out. You might have to use the Active@KillDisk program more than once to completely wipe the defective data on the drive, but you won't know that until you do it the first time, then try to install Windows.

One workaround method I used successfully with a drive that simply didn't want to install WinXP AFTER I wiped it with several different zero-fill programs is this: I booted the system with a (slightly modified) bootable WinME boot floppy, then used the updated version of FDISK to create a new FAT32 partition on the HDD. I made it the active partition, then rebooted, and formatted it when I got back to the A: prompt. Only after all of that was accomplished, was I able to install WinXP; as you can tell, sometimes, Windows starts coughing up furballs no matter what you do, and you might have to be persistent in order to get Windows to go along with the program.

Good luck; let's hope that Active@KillDisk does the job...

 

Ok, we'll do this next. One thing that I hadn't mentioned so far is that we've tried to install Windows on two different partitioning configurations. First is, the whole drive is a single partition. Second is, the drive is split in two equal partitions, and Windows is installed on the second partition. They both fail exactly at the same stage - after the first reboot, when the XP logo is on the black screen. So, I'm thinking, the chance to have Windows installation files copied over bad sectors or clusters in both configurations is very slim, isn't it?

So, if I got it right, I run the Active@KillDisk once, then if it reports that no bad clusters have been found, is there a reason to run it again? Say that Windows fails again, would an additional wipe be appropriate, or it's redundant if no bad clusters are found? And do you think it would help to try formatting with FAT32 istead of NTFS before we install Windows?

Some additional information: the 80 GB Seagate drive is the only drive in the system. Oh, and we've been using Partition Magic 8 boot floppy as a partition manager.

Thanks for your help.

 

Unless i missed it somewhere thru the posts nobody has mentioned a bad copy of xp, do you know this disc is good? Possibly try another disc. ed

 

Yes, the disk is ok, installs fine on a virtual machine on the same computer.

 

Latests news - among other things we tried to install the Vista RC and it works just fine. So we're keeping that one for the time being, and switching to the final version when it's released. Thanks for all the help.

 

I am having (almost) the same problem. And I have a Dell Inspiron 6400, with no floppy disc. What do I do in this case? Please help me!!

Thanks a lot.