Windows XP installation problems

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Dragon

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Windows XP installation HELP

well, i was installing windows XP on my friend's computer...i booted from the CD rom, it went to the blue screen where it scans hardware, loads drivers n stuff, but after that at the bottom where it says "preparing to start windows" ...or something along that line....it just freezes there, any help would be appriciated :confused:
 
Similar problems are usually caused by a incompatible or unsupported (At least out of the box) disk controller. If your friend's system uses a SCSI, RAID or UDMA disk controller instead of the regular IDE channels, then this could be your problem.

You may also want to make sure "BIOS shadowing" and "virus protection" are turned off in your BIOS if such options exist.


If you think your friend may have an integrated UDMA controller, but aren't sure, you will probably notice on bootup that the hard drive(s) are not listed in the initial post of the BIOS screen. Instead, they may appear later on a seperate screen. Disk controllers have their own "BIOS" and work independantly of the motherboard.

If that doesn't make sense (I'm not very good at explaining things sometimes), then find out from your manufacturer's website or your motherboard manual on whether you or not you have a seperate UDMA disk controller.

If do have a integrated/internal disk controller, then you will need to get the most recent Windows XP drivers for it. You can usually do this at your computer manufacturer's website (store-bought PC) or the manufacturer of the disk controller's website (homemade PC).

What you will need to do is download the newest controller drivers for Windows XP.. Then place the drivers on a floppy disk. (Do not place the files in a folder on the floppy disk (Bad Example - A:\drivers\driver.cat). You will want to make sure all the files are accessible on the root of A:\ (Good example: A:\driver.cat).

When you try to install Windows XP again, near the beginning of the blue pre-installation process, you'll see a message that pops up that says something like this, "To install third party SCSI or RAID devices, press F6". You will want to press F6 here and wait a minute or two for it to do its thing.

Pop in your floppy disk when it asks for it and follow the steps it gives you. "s" specifiies a device and "Enter" basically says, "Okay". You'll need to specify two devices (usualy) since there are often two UDMA controller channels... Then continue with the installation as usual. It should work.....


If you don't have a special disk controller, then ignore all that. ;)
 
What a really nice answer, Rick!

Also try turning the BIOS option "Plug and Play OS installed" to NO if its in your BIOS.

Usually this effects later stages of the install but it did once sort a problem I had at this stage, don't ask me why....
 
See if you have a copy of windows98 or me around and run smartdrv.exe. That speeds up the installation process significantly. Its in the CDROM:\win98\smartdrv.exe or CDROM:\win9x\smartdrv.exe. Do that from DOS from a boot floppy then install XP from CDROM:\I386\winnt.exe.

Try doing that if Rick and Phantasm's suggestion doesn't fix it. It could be that its not hanging its just taking a REALLY long time.
 
i'm not sure what the problem is, he doesn't have any scsi drives or anyting like that, he just decided to stick with windows me:eek:

thanx for all the information tho
 
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