PROBLEMS INSATALLING WINDOWS Xp

Hello Guys

This is my first post on the Forum, so please be kind and helpful with me.

;)

Right, I have got a Compaq Presario 2100, I am trying to Install a Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 disk, The disk is an origianl Authentic Microsoft disk.

I am trying to install Windows XP from Scratch, I wanted to have a new clean install, with nothing on the laptop apart from Windows. So, I changed the boot order of the Bios, so it boots from CD-ROM. Then, using the Windows CD I deleted the partition, formated the hard drive and it proceded to install XP.

It had installed about half of the files and then it suddenlly said on the screen that it cannot find certain files on the disk. My only option is to cancel and then it reboots itself and i end up back at the same screen all the time.

Now whenever I try and turn on the laptop i get:


With Windows XP CD in drive : then it ignores the CD drive and goes straight to the part of the installation that it crashed on, it asks for a Windows CD to be inserted, I have tried 3 different CD's all say the same. My only option is to close and it reboots. It is up to the "39 minutes left" stage of installing XP.


With-out CD in drive : It does exactly the same, as in, it gets to the part of windows installation that crashed asks for a CD then my only option is to reboot.



My own thoughts

I have some sort of an idea about installing OS's But I am really stuck on this one.

I possibly believe that it has either lost the drivers to the CD drive, or the CD drive has broken itself.

:confused:

I cant install from a disk becase it will not recognise that a CD is present in the drive and I cannot do anything with the hard disk because it currently has half of windows xp on it. There is no floppy drive with the laptop either, so I cant do anything with boot disks.

Anybody got any ideas,

PLEASE HELP


:confused:

OK, upon bootup, I'm guessing it is still attempting to boot to the cd, and there is a message you should see that reads:

"Press any key to boot to cd"

When you see this message, you need to tap a key. - There is only a very small timeframe where you see this message, and if you don't press a key, it will skip the cd and boot to the hard drive, which is attempting to continue your failed install. - My guess is your just not seeing this message, if need be, start tapping the spacebar as soon as the computer starts to post until it boots to the cd, then try to wipe and reload again. - You may have a faulty cd btw.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME

I have tried this already and it is not this. I don't think my laptops bios knows that a CD/DVD drive (not disk, BUT drive) physically exists anymore.

When it gets to the Windows XP installation page, then it is looking on D:\ for files, and it says that it cant find them.

If I drop down the list of drives, and try and find the files myself, then the only drive in the list is A:\.

I dont even have a floppy disk drive and i never have

surelly there should be 3 drives in the list "A", "C" & "D".

Im starting to believe that the drivers or some sort of bios controllers for the CD drive are corrupt, the settings in the bios are very limited, and only really allow you to change the boot order.

any ideas.

PLEASE.

is the cd drive a removable drive? - if so, are you sure its pushed firmly into place and making a connection? - try removing and reseating it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3fingersalute

is the cd drive a removable drive? - if so, are you sure its pushed firmly into place and making a connection? - try removing and reseating it.

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No it is not a removable drive, ive tried to get it out but its no good, it well and trully stuck in there.

anymore ideas

A scratched or dirty cd might well do this, you could run the install from your hardrive to get around this maybe, but that'll mean using fat32 & not NTFS (well not unless you'd like a great deal of 'shagging about' :eek2: ), if you are happy about that, I'll dig you out/write you some 'destructions' ?

You can try this, look at your CD in the light at an angle and if
you had your hand on disk you may have put (body oil,sweat, what ever).
Run it under hot water for a few seconds and then BLOT it dry do not
wipe it.Works with my DVD`s