XP installation problems

Leeman10

Solid State Member
Messages
8
HI everyone.
Im instaling a fresh copy of XP onto a machine. THe problem im getting though is after the initial setup process (upto when it says it will reboot in 15 seconds) It reboots itself but goes back into the first stage of setup automatically and does the whole thing again. Ive tried disabling the CD from the startup menu, ive tried taking the CD out when it goes to reboot but nothing is happening and its just going round in circles
Thanks
Lee
 
Hmm, that is very weird.

May I ask why you decided to install a fresh copy of XP? It might bring to light the problem.
 
Ive just got to rebuild it as the pc is clogged with viruses. The hard drive is formatted so there shouldnt be a problem
 
Yeah it shouldn't.

The reason I asked was because, maybe the reason you decided to start over wasn't the problem of windows, but a problem with hardware. Like maybe the hard drive acting weird or the RAM acting strangely, causing lock-ups and crashes.

If this was the case, then it'd bring to light the problem.

i'm not sure how windows sets it up to start with though after it restarts. It stores some in the RAM of course while looking for drivers, yet when it restarts, the RAM would wipe itself, so it must be storing on the hard drive the setup files to start again when it boots.

Like it'd leave a save point as it were so it'd know what to do. Taking out the disc should have stopped the loop, as it'd all be stored on the hard drive to carry on.

When you do take the disc out though, does the window setup still load? or does the screen go blank? Because if it does something, it might be attempting to carry on, but somehow can't.

If nothing was stored on the hard drive you see after taking the disc out, an error message would appear.

What exactly happens?

Hope I can help.
 
Generally this happens when the disk was "GAY" or when your hard drive is just evil. Now, i would recommend trying another hard drive
 
Ive just tried the Hard drive on another machine and its done the same thing. I take it it must be the hard drive. I presume theres no way i can fix this then!
 
Nope, afraid not.

The hard drive must be the problem since the installation writes files to the hard drive while restarting, since the RAM wipes, and so uses this part of the volume to jump back to, but if there is an issue with it. It simply won't :(

Get a new hard drive, install with that, and I'm sure all problems will be fixed.

You might find these so called virus takeovers, might have been caused by something else entirely if you didn't know for sure. Maybe the hard drive has been going for a while, yet you didn't know :(

Anyways, I think we've brought light to the problem, and i hope you never encounter this again.
 
yea, cheers for that. At least if i know its the HD ive saved about 5 hrs testing everything else!
 
Exactly :p

With hard drives (and i've had bad luck with them in the past for reasons of the power supply shorting them out) you never know when they're going to go, and its actually a miracle they work in the first place really.

Make sure you make regular backups of important data, and make sure the PC is protected in any way possible by any threat. That way, you know your data isn't going to be lost, if the worst happens.
 
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