Win XP OS installation problem. (Please Help!!!)

[xcari]

Win XP OS installation problem.

I have a problem reinstalling Windows XP via Boot from CD method.

PROBLEM:
For some reason, the installation is looping:
1. Setup loads all needed files and drivers
2. Accept License Agreement
3. Select or create partition screen
4. Format NTFS Drive
5. Setup copies neccessary files
6. Computer restarts (http://www.petri.co.il/images/setup13.jpg)

After step 6 (above), the installation supposed to continue by loading the GUI-based portion of the setup. The problem is it doesn't. Instead it take me back to step 1-6 (Above).

Anybody has any idea why it's looping?

Here's what I checked so far:
*CD should be fine, I was able to install XP on another pc with the same CD.
*I unplug all additional CD-rom and Hard drives. (plugged in is a DVD-RW and one Hard-drive)
*I checked the jumper of the CD-rom and Hard drive, both is setup correctly.

Thanks in advance.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

This is probably a RAM issue - have you changed the memory recently?

 

[almcneil]

There is no problem. What's happening is that the system needs to restart and BOOT FROM THE STARTUP FILE JUST CREATED!! You're probably booting to the installation CD again! When it restarts, do NOT boot to the CD, instead, let it boot from the HDD. Then it will start the installation process.

 

[xcari]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I have not made any new hardware changes recently, therefore "No", i did not change out the rams.

After the reboot, I did not hit any key to boot from cd. I'm not sure why it's booting to cd.

~Any other ideas?

 

[almcneil]

Check your BIOS boot sequence and make sure the HDD is listed *AFTER* the CD/DVD drive.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

Quick way to check this is to take the CD out while the system boots.

 

[xcari]

YAY! I finally got the XP installation to complete!!!!!! =)
I tried changing the BIOS boot sequence and taking out the CD and was getting a "Disk Boot Failure" error.

After going in and out of the BIOS, I noticed the Hard drive was not detected every time. I only had one hard drive on a primary cable and one cd-rom on the secondary cable. For the Hard drive's and the CD-Rom's jumper, I tried Cable Select, Master, no jumper at all and different combination for each. All failed.

The fix was to remove the cd-rom altogether and replace it with another CD Reader. I figured this out by trial and errror. I noticed without the cd-rom plugged in, the hard drive was detected by the BIOS 100%. With the cd-rom plugged in, the hard drive was detected 1 out of 5 BIOS boot. Apparently, my 8 year old CD-Rom has gone bad. I didn't suspect my CD-Rom was the culprit, since it was not having problem with copying the files from the XP.

Thanks to all for you inputs. You guys lead me in the right direction. Good job to all.

 

[almcneil]

Congrats! That's how a real tech solves problems! Trial and error swapping with some insight!

Very good grasshopper!