Problems installing XP on a Linux machine

[Dweezel]

A friend of mine needed a computer that runs XP as his had died, and was given a second hand one by a friend of his. This computer had been a server in it's previous life, and has Red Hat Linux installed on it.

No problem I thought. Just get Windows XP, format the drive and Bob's your uncle, but unfortunately I'm having problems. I turn the computer on, press f8 to go into setup, select the cd drive as the boot device, and let the windows files start loading up from the disc. This takes place without incident, but when I get to the first options screen on the XP install, namely the one which says:

To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

The keyboard stops working. By stops working I mean it apparently looses power. it's the type of keyboard that plugs into the circular keyboard socket on the computer that has pins in it, not a USB one.

If, for instance, I have num lock turned on, the green num lock light on the keyboard is initially on when I turn the computer on. It's still on when I press f8 and select the cd drive as the boot device, and remains on when the windows files are starting to install. Just as it gets to the first option screen above though, the green light goes out and the keyboard becomes unresponsive.

Any ideas?


TIA.

 

[sleipnir214]

When you see this problem, no Linux software is actually running on the machine, only Microsoft's installation software.

I recommend you post this in a forum dedicated to Windows XP.



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[franklin97355]

Also I would fdisk the drive and remove ALL partitions before starting the install.

The answer is "42"

 

[sleipnir214]

I'm not completely sure, because it's been quite a while since I overwrote Linux with XP, but I think the XP install can remove all partitions from a drive, even non-Microsoft partitions.



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[tazuk]

I'm not completely sure, because it's been quite a while since I overwrote Linux with XP, but I think the XP install can remove all partitions from a drive, even non-Microsoft partitions

Yes it can. I wiped my Ubuntu machine yesterday with an XP install disk and it detected all the relevant partitions (ext3, swap) and was able to format them all.

TazUk

Programmer An organism that turns coffee into software.
Unknown Author

 

[Dweezel]

Thanks for your help. I've got someone helping me on-site with this now and he says that XP should install over Linux without problems. He's trying to trackdown the cause of the problem at the moment.

 

[LawnBoy]

I wiped my Ubuntu machine yesterday with an XP install disk

Egads, me too. Do I smell a conspiracy?

 

[tazuk]

Egads, me too. Do I smell a conspiracy?

I've been running Ubuntu on and off for nearly a year. My freshly configured Feisty Fawn install got borked (after a week figuring out wireless networking connection problems) by some updates downloaded on Friday and would logon into an empty desktop with no menus. Spent 3 hours trying to sort it and gave up on Ubuntu for now - 20+hours of configuration time to get all hardware running is just too much when you work with pcs all week. I've got a laptop Vista upgrade in the works, and I need to have a working machine for fallback.

I had Windows XP fully configured and all the apps I need installed in 4 hours. I'll give Ubuntu another whirl when they sort the wireless networking issues out (it's much improved with Feisty but still can't handle hidden SSIDs with the standard gui).


TazUk

Programmer An organism that turns coffee into software.
Unknown Author