Windows XP wont boot

Discussion in 'Software' started by Professor-Falken, Mar 23, 2008.

  1. Professor-Falken

    Professor-Falken Kilobyte Poster

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    Computer had Windows Vista installed but wont boot into vista. Was told by boss to install Windows Xp
    and this is what happens.

    This is the screen that the Windows XP installation is stuck at

    Windows XP Professional Setup
    To Setup Windows XP on the selected item press ENTER
    To create a partiton in the unpartitioned space, press C.
    To delete the selected partition press D

    76317MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

    Unknown Disk
    There is no disk in this drive

    Unknown Disk
    There is no disk in this drive

    Unknown Disk
    There is no disk in this drive

    Enter Install C Create partition F1 Quit

    Notes i think i should reformat and repartition the hardrive and then tryin running window setup again except
    the computer does not have a floppy disk can i make a bootable usb drive with fdisk and format on it.


    This is a dell dimension c521

    Professor Falken
     
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  2. ThomasMc

    ThomasMc Gigabyte Poster

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    try slipstreaming the driver(for your storage controller) to your xp install via a program called nlite
     
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  3. Professor-Falken

    Professor-Falken Kilobyte Poster

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    yes sata hard drive
     
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  4. ThomasMc

    ThomasMc Gigabyte Poster

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    actually sorry about my last post as it maybe inaccurate as XP wouldn't detect the disk if it needed a driver
     
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  5. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    From what I believe you are saying is Vista wont load so your boss wants you to install XP is that right?

    Then delete the current partition and reformat then see if you can install as normal.

    I think XP is trying to install on top of vista and that is not a good idea.
     
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  6. Professor-Falken

    Professor-Falken Kilobyte Poster

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    the pc does not have a floppy drive so I cant use a startup disk with fdisk and format. Do you have any suggestions.

    Thank you,

    professor falken
     
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  7. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    You don't need a startup disk. Read the instructions on the screen; it's all there in front of you. Delete the partition by clicking D, create a partition by clicking C.
     
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  8. Professor-Falken

    Professor-Falken Kilobyte Poster

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    its like i said the computer freezes up at this point I am hoping that reformatting and repartitioning the drive will
    prevent the freeze up what do you think.

    professor falken
     
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  9. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    XP can't see some types of SATA.

    Two possible answers: See if the BIOS can set the SATA to something like 'legacy'. This makes the SATA drive behave like IDE.

    If you can't do that then you need a temporary floppy to make up a driver set from the motherboard CD, and use this floppy where it says something similar to 'Press F6 for additional drivers'.

    Harry.
     
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  10. Professor-Falken

    Professor-Falken Kilobyte Poster

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    can i use a usb drive and copy the motherboard drivers to it.
     
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  11. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    No - as far as I know XP only looks at floppies! The alternate way is to slipstream the drivers onto a replacement CD.

    Harry.
     
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  12. Mitzs
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    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    Is it possable that he needs the dell disk since it is a dell computer?
     
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  13. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    This is the correct solution.. grab a floppy drive from another computer, stick it in temporarily. Arm yourself with the SATA driver software that came with the MOBO.. then you can press F6 when asked for additional RAID drivers etc this happens early on on the install process.. this will force the XP installation to look on the floppy for storage device drivers.

    Or, just install Vista, as i belive it has better support for SATA drives out of the box.
     
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  14. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Well maybe. It depends how Dell packaged this particular product. If they didn't supply a proper Vista OS CD and Motherboard chipset drivers, and just supplied a restore CD with it all packaged together. That would make this whole excersise more complex.
     
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  15. Mitzs
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    Mitzs Ducktape Goddess

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    also because it won't boot into anything or freezes up while trying to do something, could be a failing hdd or powersupply.
     
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  16. Bluerinse
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    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    Yes well anything is possible, of course. Problem solving is a process of ilimination, and it's best to get the easy zero costs things iliminated first.
     
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  17. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    What was the original problem with Vista not booting up? BSOD? :blink
     
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  18. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    The problem is that the Dell shipped with Vista - and the Boss wants XP!

    Harry.
     
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  19. The_Geek

    The_Geek Megabyte Poster

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    And there are still plenty of Dell machines shipping with XP.
     
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  20. nugget
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    nugget Junior toady

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    Well first of all you could try pressing F11 (or whatever dell has set) when it starts to boot up. Then you can go through the restore process to restore the vista installation to the original factory condition.

    The other alternative is to ring dell and tell them that you want to downgrade to XP. Give them the serial number and they will send you the XP restore disks for that exact model pc. Then just boot from those disks and bob's your uncle.
     
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