WINXP install prob: 1st step, checks hw, extracts, reboots, then repeats over n over!

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hello. this is a system i built my mom and brother, also as a backup for myself ;) Its an AMD 64 3200 on an Asus K8N-E Socket 754. here's the deal: the first step installing winxp fresh (on a seagate 200gb), it does the checkin your system hardware, bla bla, everything is ok, then the first reboot the machine does, tells you remove any discs in drive A, bla bla, reboots, start-up and repeats what it just did!! over and over and over again. the last computer i "bought", i had a lot of practice installing win on it, but i never had this problem. reading online about anything similar to it points to the hardware, which i have tested individually on my machine (remember this is my family's machine). anyway, thanks for any help or suggestions. my next step is paying someone 80$/hr to install winxp. lovely!
 
Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Excuse me asking this, but.

When you boot from the xp disk. You start by pressing any key to boot from cd, when asked.

Then after the computer reboots. You are asked to press any key again. DO NOT press any key a second time, otherwise it will just repeat the whole process over again.

If this is not what`s happening, I appologise.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:
 
is a hd able to accept storage and maybe unable to friggin do the windows?

no, you right, i did not know i was supposed to NOT press it, but since its a problem i pressed and not pressed, and when i don't press any key, i get fail to load. i even tried setting up the hd in my machine (i've read since thats useless), and the same prob happened. so could the hd be messed up? this morning in traffic i was thinkin abt the hd... i hadnt thought of it before because i can see the hd in my machine! i even transferred my fam's files to it (i partitioned it in half). but since then its been formatted like 4 times (i'm bad) with the quick ntfs (only once with the long version). so, is a hd able to accept storage and for some reason unable to friggin do the windows? this sux. they been waiting for a computer since summer! the previous issues the motherboard was to blame. in one year's time, the motherboard was exchanged three times!! i dunno if it was biostar's fault or newegg, but i've since abandoned both!
 
Install again, this time, when it reboots, yank the cd out of the drive. It should start booting up the GUI install part, once it begins to do that, put the cd back in the drive.
 
I have had a similar problem on a few installs before.once it was a defective XP disk. two other times it turned out the Cd\DVD rom was defective.
 
yup, i tried using my friend's winxp disc, also tried swapping cdrom drives... same prob... i will try the yank the cd out advice. thanks.
 
Hi there

Ok the first thing i would do is uninstall any non needed hardware.
1cdrom
1hd
1 stick memory
1 video card.
Thats it.
Go into your bios and make sure the default (sometimes called safe) settings are set.

Then try again.
 
hello! that's exactly how its set up already. tis why im so confused! the nite before yesterday i had tried to install win98 (so it formatted the drive to fat32) and i forget the error exactly but somethign about possible damage at the end of the hd or something... but get this, yesterday, i brought the machine to work and was able to install winxp! what was different?? different monitor and keyboard... maybe its a little cooler at work than my attic...
so winxp installed i shoulda left it alone, but not, stupid *** thought, hm, well, if it did it once it can do it again. i wanted to see if it would do it again! so i tried installing fresh again, but the same crap happened as before, would not install. i had found a 2.6gb hd from 10yrs ago and tried installing xp on that, it worked but i only have 118mb free! so that wont last long... i hope to spend the weekend or what u guys think, is it the hd?? i'm confused because i was able to set up the hd in my machine, but then it wont accept winxp! i have only the necessary hw connected and i know a lot abt computers and electricity and life but im thinking this seagate is schizo, for real.
 
i did it!

heres how i did it. i was able to install winxp on the
2.6gb hd yesterday. today i put the cd for the seagate
200gb hd and installed it as the boot drive, partitioning
a 200gb in 4. it worked. the hd seems fine too, i installed some programs, rebooted and stuff. just wouldnt take winxp, weird!!
 
Hmmmm

Is your windows disk a xp without service packs?
Or does your xp cd have service pack 2?
Also when you do the install and you format the disk. Do you delete all the previous partitions?
I would put the hd in a working machine and partition it the way you wanted. and format only the first partition.
Boot with xp cd.
when i asks to install you tell it the first and primary partition.
One other thing i have noticed is weird issues installing.
After it installs if it errors out.
Put a win98 boot disk in and do an fdisk /mbr to remove and rebuild your masterboot record. I imagine with all the reinstalls its pretty muffed up.
 
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