Windows XP OS error

[FaLL3N Angel]

I recently had to use cmd to format my C: due to viral infection. Once I did that, i booted up the old windows XP install disk via external dvd drive. I chose the C: to install XP (my plan was to install xp then upgrade it with win 7 because when i tried just installing windows 7 it would say "cannot install windows on this partition because the disk might fail soon"). So everything would go smoothly from there, it would restart then i would eject the disk so it would boot from the hard drive (in the BIOS i have the external drive first and the hard drive second) however when the SATA is set as ACHI i just get a black screen saying error loading operating system amd when the SATA is set as IDE i get the same black screen except this time it just says " Error reading disk. Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart. However no matter how many times I do this it just does the same thing. I also know that it isn't the windows files b/c when i reboot the disk it says that "there are already windows files on this disk, would you like to format...." Does anyone know what is going on, why, or what I should do about it?

 

[Ultiweap]

Hi,

You know the installation may have copied files yes but if the bootable ones are corrupted or not installed then you may get those problem. Try to change you Windows installation disk and use another one to test if everything is ok.

 

[mailpup]

It's not clear to me at exactly what point you ejected the Windows XP CD. It's not normally necessary to remove the CD until you reach the Windows XP desktop even if you have the CD as the first boot device. You just don't "press any key" to boot from the CD when prompted and let it continue by itself. The only time you press any key to boot from the CD is the first time. After that, ignore that prompt.