Help can't finish a setup on windows xp because of eternal loop

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Adrenal1ne204

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okay im getting desperate here. I was trying to do a repair/upgrade installation on my xp then it froze at 39minutes remaining and so i restarted the computer and everytime i start it up it brings me a blue screen that says "windows xp:setup is being restarted........." then it brings me to a black screen with my cursor then restarts again and goes back to the same blue screen with the same message and repeats it over and over infinite times in a loop. it seems as though i cannot get to the next step. ive tried the repair but it wont accept my admin pass. i DO NOT want to lose my files so im not willing to do anything that will cause loss of data. How can i bypass the loop and regain access to my files?? please help anything will be appreciated!
 
I would think that the easiest way is to install over your existing install. If you don't format, or delete the partitions, you shouldn't lose any data. You may have errors with previously installed apps, but you can use your newfound access to your os to back up your files.

I would think that the easiest way is to install on an alternate harddrive, and hanging that one off of it. Then you can get all the files you want off of it. When you are done you can back up the files to cd/cds/dvd and start a fresh install of xp on your original HDD.

Not to add insult to injury, but remember to back up your data regularly.

/Begin opinionated banter
If at all possible I never upgrade an os. Clean installs are always..well..cleaner. You don't carry any possible problems over from your previous install, and if you are installing from a version that didn't have NTFS you can take advantage of a mostly superior filesystem.
/end this guff

Hope this helps.
Good luck.

Check this thread.
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html
 
thanks for the tip but the thing is i can't install it because i can't get to the next step because i continuously get looped to the same step.
 
Have you tried an install over your current installation though? I don't mean an upgrade, I mean to use the upgrade disk and install windows over your current installation.

Again, if you have a harddrive to spare...install to that one and use your current drive as a secondary
 
actually i havent tried to install it. hmm when i get to choose the partition it gives me a option to choose either the my original one used or a 8mb one that wont allow me to use it. will a new partition show up if i put another hdd in? so i should make my hdd with my files a slave and the new hdd as master, set my new hdd as master and install xp right? then i can make backups and just reformat everything... ill try this thanks alot man. one more thing sorry if im sounding noobish at this point(because i am and im only 15) i installed the same os on the c:/ so right now i got two operating systems in one hdd im on the xp that works right now i created it so i could access the internet for help. when i start up it gives me the option at the screen where u can press f8 which xp to use one is my old files and one is the one im on now that works. would this in anyway affect the drive when i set it to slave? how do i delete one of them? thanks alot
 
These are the two options in a little more detail.

Install over existing install:
When you get into the install menu with the XP disk you don't want to delete any partitions or format. It should see the current install. You just want to install on the same install. Does that make any sense? It will warn you that your previous install may not work properly. As long as the new install completes successfully this isn't a problem. One problem with this senario is that there is a great possibility that some of your installed programs will not work properly. It is really a stop-gap to get you to your files for backups. Then you can do a clean install on that drive.

Using a spare harddrive:
If you have a drive that doesn't have any information on it that you need, i.e. it can be formatted, you can use it to do a clean install of xp on. You'll want to partition and format this drive with the same filesystem the same as the previous install. When you finish the install, you can hook your old drive up as secondary. This will allow you to pull the individual files from your failed installation drive that you need to back up. The main problem with this is that you cannot, in almost all curcumstances, copy installed programs. You will essentially only be able to recover individual files like movies, music, images, documents, etc. Then, if you wish, you can do the same thing with your old harddrive. Install windows on it clean since you have the files you need backed up.

As far as physical setup of the harddrives is concerned, I usually don't set drives to master, or slave. I'll keep them on CS (cable select), and make sure the drive I want to boot from is at the end of the cable.

Feel free to ask any questions about any of this guff. I didn't explain in detail primarily because it's a long read already. As to being new to this stuff, we all have to start somewhere. I know my way around a network pretty well, but I couldn't code my way out of a wet paper bag. I'm relatively new to this forum, but I think I can safely say that helping people is what we are all here for.

Oh, and welcome to Techspot!
 
CS, or Cable select, is a jumper setting. It's set the same way you set Master, or Slave. That is to say it is set in the same area on your harddrives. Modern systems don't have to have the actual Master/Slave relationship on the jumpers. Check your harddrive documentation if it's not labeled on the drive itself.
 
okay ive never actually put two hard drives together. so once i get all this done when i log in how exactly am i suppose to access my files? also would the fact that there are two windows xp os's on one hard drive(old one) affect it functioning?
 
if you are still struggling with the same problem here is a suggestion.(provided you have another hdd of course)the simplest way to go about this.if you have an operating system on another hdd you can make it your master and boot directly into it with the other hdd as slave and copy you files or whatever and then format and do a clean install.
to do this first check your cable configuration if you have a cd drive or not if yes than is this the cd drive connected to the same cable(ribbon data cable) as the hdd or a separate one.you'll need to put your working hdd with the working os on the one on which you have your current faulty hdd on and the faulty one on where you have the cd drive and then boot.one good way to check this is to see the mobo and see which device is connected to which slot on your mobo both have to be on two separate.if you do this you wont need to reset the jumper on the hdd and can do easily.after you boot up yur os will detect a new hdd and the old hdd's drive would show up along with the new hdd's.

good luck
 
I'll assume you have EIDE.

Check this link. Scroll all the way to the bottom to see a pic of the cable you'll use to hook up the HDDs with. It's labeled "ATA 66 IDE cable".

Referencing that pic; You'll plug the offending harddrive, the one that the os won't install on, into the 'Slave' plugin on that cable. Make sure both harddrives are on CS as previously stated. Then you plug in the other harddrive in the 'Master' plugin on the cable. The, what should be light blue, end should be in the primary IDE port on your mainboard.

When you boot from the windows cd, you should be able to select the first drive to install windows on. It should be labeled hda1, or hdd1, or primary HDD...not sure about the name. You'll want to format and create your windows partition on this drive. Be aware that you will lose ALL info on this drive. As a safety measure you may want to not plug in the offending harddrive until you get windows installed. This will only give you one drive option for installation.

Unless you have a boot loader, you will only be able to boot your new installation of windows. If you haven't hooked up the offending HDD at this point, do so now. When you boot your machine after hooking up the drive, you should see this drive as whatever the next free drive letter is in my computer. You should then be able to access it as it is now just a secondary drive. Copy the stuff you need from it to your C:\ drive, and back it up.

Sorry it's so long. I hope this helps...i'm not always great at explaining things.

Good luck.
 
hey hoopaloop thanks alot man your info is helping me out greatly. one more thing if its just another drive and i click onto it would everything just be accessible? like im on the second xp os on the faulty hdd at the current moment and i click on control panal and c:/ its says 40gigs used and thats basically my files but i can't access them because they were on a previous administrator login that prevents me from accesssing the files as a diff user(its not shared) will i be able to access them once the faulty drive becomes slave?

btw sorry for all my questions im just trying to be sure of everything b4 i attempt it
 
Scope this excellent post by Rick.

Read it carefully and completely. It may help you get access to your files without having to do a reinstall.

If this works for you I still suggest you backup all your loose files and do a clean install ofterwards. If not, let us know here, and we'll attack it some more.

I can't speak for any of the other forum members, but I won't refuse any sincere questions if I've an answer. That is mainly what this forum is for.

Hope this helps.
 
okay so i did the master/slave option and i get the exact same access as checking the c:/ from the second xp os i installed on the faulty drive. I get the message "drive is not accessible access is denied." by the way hoopajoop what did you mean by installing over it? i try that and it always says if i do all users, documents, folders, subfolders, etc will be deleted theres only one partition choice.
 
yeah ive already done everything in ricks post before i even attempted to get help online after my computer restarts it just never gets to the next setup step it just reboots after the same blue screen. when i try to click on the user that contains all my files it says access denied. so im thinking if i convert to fat32 all admin, user, locks and passwords should be disabled allowing me access to any of my files and at that point i should be able to back my files up.

hey poertner i just went through that link. hmm so its going to be very tough to convert while i have currently existing data right? I actually got this idea from a technician he was like "i've never ran into this problem before" then he told me he could try to convert it to fat32 but it would be risky. I asked him how long would it take for him to do it and he told me probably an allnighter. At that point i hadn't attempted the master/slave harddrive option so i told him i'll just take my tower back (I didn't want to get charged for a risky operation which would possibily end up cleaning out my data anyway and defeating the purpose of even paying him to attempt to retreive my data). But yeah i still want to manually attempt that conversion of Ntsf to Fat32 without deleting my data. Any more information would be usefull thanks.
 
alright my cousin helped me out and retreiving my data was successfull. he sent me this program not sure what its called he just named it 1.exe which scanned my computer for all files and unlocked the folder which previously said "access denied". thanks for trying to help though guys this is definitly a great forum.
 
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