XP INSTALLATION WEIRD STUFF GOING ON!!

[kes101]

Hello friends and thank you for looking at my problem. I am trying to install XP PRO on a Hewlett Packard Pentium 3/750MHz/256ram/20 gig hdd machine. All goes well at the beginning when you get the message "setup is inspecting you computers configuration" I format the hard drive(ntfs) then the setup files are copied over. And at this point the machine reboots(normally to the setup screen) but on this machine it goes back to the beginning(inspecting computers configuration) again and would just keep going round in an endless circle. I have changed boot order and everything else i can think of. Please help me!! Before I go mad!!

 

[linney]

How many times are you pressing the "Any Key" to boot from CD. Every time the key is pressed it causes Setup to restart from square one. Make sure you only boot once from the CD and then let Setup do its thing without you forcing it to boot from CD every time.

 

[LloydSev]

linney is correct, don't press a key during bootup.. the only time the setup cd does not ask you to press a key to boot, is when there is no data in the boot sector.

Computer/Network Technician
CCNA

 

[kes101]

Sorry guys i think i have not made myself clear. I have an unattended installation disk which requires no input from myself. I am not pressing any keys at all. As you say when setup restarts i normally see the "press any key" stuff. But on this machine i don't see it and setup starts right from the beginning every time!! Weird or what??

 

[allteltec]

Is the partistion you are installing to set active, I have seen this when multi partistion or hard drive or partistion not set active.

 

[linney]

You could try a manual install and see if the same thing happens. If it does it may be a problem with the machine itself. If it goes through OK then your Answer File may be faulty.

How to Perform an Unattended Installation of Windows from a CD-ROM

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314459&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[kes101]

Hello again everyone. I have tried manually installing it and also using my unattended installation disk(which i have used many times before so i know its OK) but the machine keeps re booting and going straight back to the very beginning of setup. I have 10 of these machines(vectra VL 750) and out of the 4 i have tried they all do this. The machine just goes round in circles. I just don't understand it!!

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310760

 

[kes101]

Its now official!! I am a total numb scull. The problem was that the hard drive jumper was set to slave and the system bios was not seeing the hard drive. So I set to master and hay presto. I just cant believe I made such an error. That should have been the first thing I checked. Talk about cant see the wood for the tree's. Any way a big thank you to all you guys. And when I die and go to heaven I am going to tell the big man upstairs to check out tek tips.....its the best.

 

[bcastner]

Windows XP Does Not Respond at "Setup Is Starting Windows XP" Message
My earlier link:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310760

This can lead to a non-responsive system, or a reboot.

There is a device connected to your mass-storage device that is preventing Windows from being installed. Remove any devices (such as scanners, tape drives, removable drives, and so on) from the mass-storage device controller. If the computer is IDE-based, verify that you have the master and slave designations set properly. If the mass-storage controller is SCSI-based, verify that the termination and bus speed is set properly.