Windows setup won't start after format

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Hi,

so i just bought a new 320gb sata hd (after my old IDE hd, which i had my windows installation on, died). After booting with the windows xp cd, i created 2 partitions, one 100gb partition (to install the os on), and one 200gb partition.

After choosing the 100gb partition for installation, it formatted it (i chose the normal format), it copied the installation files and restarted. After the restart, i wait for the "press enter to boot from dvd" to pass, and afterwars itll stall on the black command screen (where the little white underline keeps blinking), and it'll just stay there indefinitely, and won't start the installation.

What am i doing wrong, should i have done something else to install windows on a new hd? i am completely lost, i have installed windows about 1 million times and never ran into something like this.
 
Managed to install win 7 32 bit though, so it's not a problem with the hd.... but i wanna go back to xp, what do i do?
 
XP did not have any drivers for a SATA HDD. They need to be added during install by one means or another, or you get exactly the symptoms you describe. This had been discussed countless times. There are solutions ranging from simple (set the HDD to IDE compatibility mode first), to complex (create a new install CD with slipstreamed SP3 and SATA drivers).

Now that you know the reason for your troubles, I leave you to find your best solution.

One extra point - if you have it in mind to dual boot XP and 7, start by installing XP. It wont work the other way round without rather more than IT101 skills.
 
The issue is not to do with the hard drive not being recognized, if that was the issue they would either not see a hard drive at all, or it would blue screen.

Since they can, and have partition the hard drive, it is being seen and is accessable

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php//t-250905.html Looking at this POST, that user had a bad CD. Is there any way you can get a new XP install disc? See if it will install probably from that one.
 
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