XP Installation problem

Hello Major Geeks friends!

I am having a problem installing Windows XP. It's making it to the point in which it needs to restart for the first time, but after restarting it hangs up at the point where it says "press any key to boot from CD." Of course, it doesn't work if I do boot from CD, because then it wants to start over the install. I've tried setting the bios to boot from the hard drive, but this doesn't work, either - it hangs up with a flashing cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

It's a fresh install of windows onto a drive that has some data on it, but no operating system. I didn't change any of the partitions or format anything when prompted - I left it as NTFS.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!!! :heart

 

Hi, I just wanted to make sure my post didn't get lost! Thanks, friends!

 

Hi. I don't mean to sound rude, but could somebody please help me? Normally, when I come here, somebody helps within a few hours, but it's been almost a full day and nobody has replied to my post. I really need my computer to do work on, so I am hoping to get this resolved ASAP. Thanks again for your help! I don't mean to sound rude - I just really need help!

 

If your BIOS is set to boot from hard drive and you have no OS installed this is why you are getting the flashing curser. hold down your F key maybe F8 that gives you the boot options. Choose to boot from the CD in these options.

Choose Set up Windows now when it boots from the CD. Format your drive however you like it. One Patition is the easiest way to go. Install Windows on the entire C Drive. Follow the prompts and you should be fine.

As long as your BIOS is set to boot from the hard drive once you install the OS it will boot from the drive with out any problems.

 

I'm able to boot from CD just fine, and windows installation starts normally. The problem comes when the installation needs to restart the computer for the first time. After this, I can't get it to boot up from the hard drive, and if I boot from CD it just tries to start the installation over.

Is it necessary to format the drive? I have some data on there that I want to keep.

 

You say you set your BIOS to boot from the hard drive, correct?

It cant boot from the hard drive if you have no operating system. It was probably set in BIOS to boot from CD which is why you get the message.

If it is set to boot from hard drive you have to format to do a clean install. I am afraid you will lose the data already on the drive as it sounds like you did not complete the install you were trying to run.

 

Yes, after it finishes the first part of the windows installation, it restarts. At this point I've tried setting it to boot from CD and to boot from hard drive - it doesn't work in either case. From what I've read on the internet, it seems it should be booting from hard drive at this point.

The installation program gives me the option to not format or partition the drive, which is what leads me to believe this is possible. The drive in question has never had an operating system on it - it has been used for data only.

 

If the OS is properly installed then it will boot from the hard drive eventually. The hard drive might be the 2nd or 3rd option. Just let it run it's course.

The hard drive must have been formatted at one time for you to put data on it.

Was it a slave or storage drive?

If you want to make it your master drive you have to install the OS on it. If it has data on it then it is formatted and should tell you where the data is on the disk.

Make a new partition with only free space and install your OS to that partition. You should be able to read the data that is on there after you format and install the OS.