Windows installation problem

[Morcs]

Hey guys, I have a problem I need some assistance with.

Id say im fairly damn competent with computer troubleshooting... so only real techies apply :D

Anyways, my system has been prone to crashing randomly - couldnt find any problem, so ran windows xp disk and low and behold the option to repair the installation appears (not the recovery console)

So I let the installation run and it gets to the point where it reboots for the first time, Then the blue screen appears with 'windows setup is restarting....' - nothing untoward there. After it carrys on the installation it get to the point where a little green bar 3/4 full appears saying 'installing devices', with 33 minutes remaining. Problem is, its just sitting there, and doesnt move for hours.

After numorous attempts to cancel/finish installation and failing, and not finding anything in the bios to avert things, i decided to reset the bios by momentarily removing the battery and re-installing it.

Now when I boot it comes up with 'windows xp home edition' loading screen, then the 'setup is restarting screen, then a blank black screen just with a cursor - and it automatically reboots again and again and I cant break it out of the cycle...

So any ideas peeps... much appreciated... im at a complete loss of ideas here - I cant boot from another disk or anything...

[N1CK]

Windows:sick:

I say get a Mac :yes:

[Morcs]

Windows:sick:

I say get a Mac :yes:

Generally macs are for homos.

Id rather have my inferior windows system :P

[riffer]

Just a wild guess but it sounds to me like you've got a problem with a device.

Try pulling the boards out of the pci and/or agp slots, cleaning the contacts with a bit of tissue, and making sure they're placed back in again nicely.

Also, RAM as well.

[Madmax]

Told you it was a crap board
(shared memory)

[Smokin]

I'm picking its just a dodgy install, Format the bugger and start from scratch.

[Sniper]

Windows:sick:

I say get a Mac :yes:

He was asking for helpful advice....

[Cajun]

EVER NEVER DO A RECOVOERY

always do a format reinstall

a recoverly never really fixes your problems, only time you recover if you are desperate to get some files before you format.

[scracha]

It's likely to be picking up the registry settings from your old install. Format probably isn't an option as you'll lose all your data. Normally installing to a different directory works OK (i.e. WinXP2). Then you have to import the user settings (in the C:\documents & settings\ it'll prefix duplicate usernames with the machine name). Edit the c:\boot.ini file after install to point to the new one and bob's your uncle. Eventually you'll be able to erase the original one.

Other option is to use PARTPE or something that can read NTFS and rename the windows directory (maybe Windows.old) and the boot.ini BEFORE proceeding with a new install.

If the fresh install doesn't work then last ditch effort is to reformat the drive (and don't use the quick format option either) and if that doesn't work your PC is generally fooked and only useful for running carp like Ubuntu.


I'm a sad bastard and have just received my two USB dance-mats to work with StepMania. :Punk:

[Sam I Am]

Get a MAC ....again not helpfull but the truth!!!

[Big Dog]

Depends....... on several factors.
Do you have another physical drive?
Can you install a going os on that?
Is all your data on a seperate partition from your os like a good boy? If so format your c:\ and reinstall.
But if I were you I would start by take out as many cards as you can start with and then try to allow the remainder of the install.
Modern GPU's usually clash with the install. If you have a built in or a older GPU you could install using that as well. Let xp pull down all its updates then reinstall your card. Long process but you get a chance at keeping your data.
If you need help let me know what night you are cooking me dinner and I will have a look.

[Delphinus]

Take as much hardware out as you can and try a clean install then.
Also test your memory. http://www.memtest.org/

[xwhatsit]

Hey guys, I have a problem I need some assistance with.

Id say im fairly damn competent with computer troubleshooting... so only real techies apply :D

Anyways, my system has been prone to crashing randomly - couldnt find any problem, so ran windows xp disk and low and behold the option to repair the installation appears (not the recovery console)

So I let the installation run and it gets to the point where it reboots for the first time, Then the blue screen appears with 'windows setup is restarting....' - nothing untoward there. After it carrys on the installation it get to the point where a little green bar 3/4 full appears saying 'installing devices', with 33 minutes remaining. Problem is, its just sitting there, and doesnt move for hours.

After numorous attempts to cancel/finish installation and failing, and not finding anything in the bios to avert things, i decided to reset the bios by momentarily removing the battery and re-installing it.

Now when I boot it comes up with 'windows xp home edition' loading screen, then the 'setup is restarting screen, then a blank black screen just with a cursor - and it automatically reboots again and again and I cant break it out of the cycle...

So any ideas peeps... much appreciated... im at a complete loss of ideas here - I cant boot from another disk or anything...

<hints id="hah_hints"></hints>Attempting to install over an existing installation is recommended by some people (especially in the days of Win98), but I've never had any good results by doing it.

Resetting your BIOS probably changed the boot preferences, so you're now booting directly off your hard disk. Unfortunately, your hard disk has a screwed installation of WinXP -- as you aborted installation halfway through as it did not complete. Not really any way to get out of this, best thing to do is simply to put the hard disk into another machine, copy off all the data you want to keep, then do a format/reinstall. That, barring shitty hardware (always a possibility in consumer x86-land), will allow you to start from scratch and should install perfectly.

If after formatting the hard disk entirely you still can't install Windows, there's obviously a hardware issue. Don't worry about this now, it's a thread topic in itself, and you should just be able to format and reinstall.

[riffer]

Get a MAC ....again not helpfull but the truth!!!

What a load of crap. I've had plenty of problems with Macs, PCs and Suns.

Go away with your fanboy rubbish. When you mature you'll realise that the OS isn't really that important. It's the person controlling the computer that matters.

[Mental Trousers]

Riffers spot on there. Bloody fanboi's (Mac, Windows, *nix etc)

I'd start by pulling as many devices as possible (right down to the bare minimum of ram, hdd and optical drive) and see if it continues on and finishes the install.
Personally, I've never had any problems with doing a repair install. It's much better than reinstalling every single piece of software that I need/want all over again.

[Disco Dan]

Hey guys, I have a problem I need some assistance with.

Id say im fairly damn competent with computer troubleshooting... so only real techies apply :D

Anyways, my system has been prone to crashing randomly - couldnt find any problem, so ran windows xp disk and low and behold the option to repair the installation appears (not the recovery console)

So I let the installation run and it gets to the point where it reboots for the first time, Then the blue screen appears with 'windows setup is restarting....' - nothing untoward there. After it carrys on the installation it get to the point where a little green bar 3/4 full appears saying 'installing devices', with 33 minutes remaining. Problem is, its just sitting there, and doesnt move for hours.

After numorous attempts to cancel/finish installation and failing, and not finding anything in the bios to avert things, i decided to reset the bios by momentarily removing the battery and re-installing it.

Now when I boot it comes up with 'windows xp home edition' loading screen, then the 'setup is restarting screen, then a blank black screen just with a cursor - and it automatically reboots again and again and I cant break it out of the cycle...

So any ideas peeps... much appreciated... im at a complete loss of ideas here - I cant boot from another disk or anything...

I still think one of your PCI cards or your RAM is the problem... as others have said, remove all your cards and give it another go.. still have problems then stick a known working stick of RAM in and take yours out.

If it still doesnt work..... ....go get some leather undies and get a Mac :shutup:


:rofl:

[Delphinus]

If you're really keen, copy the i386 directory from xp cd onto a fat32 partition on your hard drive, (or memstick if you have a big enough one) then go without the cdrom as well. (have had problems with them before)

Boot off a usb memory stick into dos and run smartdrv.exe (makes the install fast instead of slow as in 6 hours slow) then from the i386 directory run winnt.exe

You may have to download startdrv.... and install himem.sys etc etc (config.sys dos stuff)
Clear as mud? It is possible. Used to do it alot on school machines that dont have cdrom drives.

[Delphinus]

still have problems then stick a known working stick of RAM in and take yours out.


Just use memtest (link above)

Its easy and fast and first thing you should do.
1- Download 3mb iso and burn to cd.
2 - Boot off cd
3 - ???
4 - Proft

ummm whoops... I mean:
3 - have coffee/go for ride for an hour
4 - Come back... if its failed you'll see stuff.. if not pass will be a value > 0

[Sam I Am]

What a load of crap. I've had plenty of problems with Macs, PCs and Suns.

Go away with your fanboy rubbish. When you mature you'll realise that the OS isn't really that important. It's the person controlling the computer that matters.
not a fanboy it just seems to work for me. :yes: always lost on a pc and there drivers.

[Street Gerbil]

Do you have an onboard promise RAID controller? Google "promise raid", download the image and write it on a floppy. Then start the installation and hit F6 when setup asks for additional devices (in the very beginning, right after the first reboot).
Hope that helps.

[Morcs]

Okay, thanks for the feedback and suggestions.

I removed all pci cards - but not ram, will try that.

I did change the boot devices in the BIOS to try to stop it looking for cd - to finish the installation i should get it to do the opposite...

I have a secondary hard drive - it has most of my important shit on it but am not prepared to lose all of my music and movies again... I cant install another OS onto it - or boot off any other disk for that matter as its locked into doing the xp install.

For the same reasons I cant format without putting the HD into another machine.

Worst comes to worse Ill whip the hardrive out and ask Disco to look after my files whilst I do a clean install :D

[ManDownUnder]

Hardware or firmware issue.

Here's what is probably happening (in my limited experience)...

Somethings conflicting, not performing or not responding nicely causing the boot sequence. An address i being called for the next instruction in the boot sequence and the HDD isn't responding faster than the... RAM or NIC or whatever so the response puts poos in the startup ointment.

Once the infection is started... it all turns to custard rather quickly.

Question... What changed? (Something DID). "I don't know" is a correct answer, but "nothing" is not. If you have added, swapped or changed any hardware or firmware, or layer in an upgrade of some sort - undo what you did and try again from that point.

Hopefully the OS is not deep fried which means you'll need to start over anyway. But even if you do (and let's face it - it IS likely) you'll need to get ride of the cause of the problem before that reinstall will work.

Re MAC vs Windows... *yawn*. Each to their own.

Honoda vs Kawa vs Suzuki vs Yamaha etc - same argument. Long and fun over a few beers but really containing little enduring substance at the end of the day.

[Lias]

Riffers spot on there. Bloody fanboi's (Mac, Windows, *nix etc)

I'd start by pulling as many devices as possible (right down to the bare minimum of ram, hdd and optical drive) and see if it continues on and finishes the install.
Personally, I've never had any problems with doing a repair install. It's much better than reinstalling every single piece of software that I need/want all over again.

What he said.. and we used to have entirely too much experiecng troubleshooting wierd arse issues :-P

[Gremlin]

so ran windows xp disk and low and behold the option to repair the installation appears (not the recovery console)
this option will always appear when an existing OS is detected.

Starting at the beginning, your PC was unstable, well, thats a minefield, without testing it, its unknown what could be the cause (and the list is very long). Re-setting the BIOS, depends if you set it back up again, and it depends what brand mobo, other factors such as the presence of RAID, etc.

Your install is broken. Its lost, troubleshooting it, from a tech point of view (cost v success ratio) is not worth it. Plug the drive into another PC, wipe the partition off the disk, and do another install, fully formatting the drive in the process.

Installs. You can have random installs that are crap. It happens. You fix by installing a fresh copy. Issues you can (or have) run into can include things such as a bad OS disk, it could be a brand of CD the drive doesn't like reading (Mitsubishi disks are in that category), or optical drive could be bad.

If you are working with trusted hardware (and this may require testing - ram, hdd) then a fresh install should work, if you use a OS disk you know works, etc.

Let us know how you go.

[Morcs]

My Hardware is all relatively new - mixed with 2 old hdd's... and an underpowered psu.

Does anyone have a 60gb harddrive that i can buy? :D

[Zapf]

My Hardware is all relatively new - mixed with 2 old hdd's... and an underpowered psu.

Does anyone have a 60gb harddrive that i can buy? :D

and an underpowered psu. that could be your problem

I have some 40Gb's (from memory). You want to buy them? good working condition.

[jonbuoy]

Do a google for Bart OS - its a working bootable OS and can read/write to NTFS. You'll need a PC with working windows and a CD burner and your original XP install CD. Its free and handy for recovering data and testing hardware even if hard drive is stuffed you can check the rest works. http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

[Scouse]

Sounds to me like you tried to run the windows disc while you had a antivirus program running in the background you must allways disable any antivirus programs while running your windows disc

[Toaster]

I just left the windows to the builder. He did a great job.

[Squiggles]

You mention previous crashes, what was happening at the time? stressing the computer?


Have had similar issues, i did have a faulty stick of ram, crashed every so often, stalled installs etc...

Im an IT techie (albeit on Macs but i can do pc's too). Can grab an external HDD from work for backup purposes.... though, at $120 for 320GB a new one goes along way if you're into collecting movies ;)

Also have a spare stick of ram for testing...
Otherwise theres Memtest, the ram testing tool: http://www.memtest86.com/ Just boot from a floppy and let that run, good way to check its ram but its not always right (mostly is though)

pm if ya need help

[xwhatsit]

Mate, just fuck it, do what Gremlin said. You can speculate about faulty RAM or underpowered power supplies all day until you actually do a proper fresh installation from scratch. Back up your data, start anew. I wouldn't want to be half-arsing around with a patchwork Windows installation afterwards anyway.

You can get away with that kind of stuff under UNIX-y type stuff but Windows isn't so partitioned off and isolated (not speaking as a Linux fanboy here, this is just the truth), so for peace of mind and just keeping things simple, back-up, format, fresh install.

[Delphinus]

I often partition of 20gb or so at the start of the drive for windows, and store all data on another partition the size of the rest of the drive.
That way you can happily reformat without loosing data, and I do that ever 4 months or so :)

[Gremlin]

I often partition of 20gb or so at the start of the drive for windows, and store all data on another partition the size of the rest of the drive.
Depends on what you do... I have a 70gb primary, on one of my 320. 50 would be recommended, but it entirely depends on what you are up to.

Having data/software/movies is absolutely recommended to be on another partition. Easier to be on another drive... but partition will suffice in most situations. I use 3x 320 at the mo, normal layout, but will buy another 3x 320, and put a 2 disk raid 1, and a 4 disk raid 5 in.

RAID gives you much better security for drives falling over, but you have to use raid drivers on OS installs, drivers for work outside the OS etc... Not recommended for average users, but say, buy a 320, and keep a second copy of really important data on it.

Rule for recovering data... do not write anything to the disk.

Back on topic... Morcs, you've listed another potential cause of random crashing, insufficient power. IF you want to solve that issue, we'll need a full run down of whats in the case, and what power supply you have (both watts, and brand)

[Biff]

I experienced eggsacklee the same probs you've described there my friend, and it turned out to be a rooted audio card driver.

It took some frigging around for over a course of a week and a bit, then I managed to get it started in safe mode and started the drivers one by one in an attempt to isolate/identify the fault.

Good luck.

[sAsLEX]

You can still get back data after a format..... I was very angry and formatted the fucker..... but I got most/some of the data back. The tools are freeish on the net.

Best take the HDD out and go to a mates with some spare space and copy the not to incriminating stuff to his whilr you sort it out.

[Morcs]

Im just going to get a higher powered psu (sourced a 300w, 400w+ is preferable but a 300 should be sufficient.)

Everything in my computer has been recently been upgrading in the last few months - except main hdd and psu - both of which are 3 years old - hence replacing.

Cheers for the offer zapf, but looking to go a bit bigger than 40gb, to use as a primary drive with a fresh install, then have my old hdd running as slave to recover my data from.

[Gremlin]

You can still get back data after a format..... I was very angry and formatted the fucker..... but I got most/some of the data back.
You can retrieve data to varying degress of success (and depending how good the software is) after several writes on the hdd. The specialised forensics guys et al, have very nice software, capable of dialing down through layers of written data too...

The only truly safe, in regards to data sensitivity, hard drive is a destroyed one... and even then, you have to do a very thorough job on it.

[westie]

Probably stop surfing the porn. It might come right.

[RT527]

um , just a small point, have you tried cleaning your xp disc and making sure that it aint scratced....many a problem with installs is just a dirty or scratced disc , and the reader cant read the data properly so will hang.....

[Morcs]

um , just a small point, have you tried cleaning your xp disc and making sure that it aint scratced....many a problem with installs is just a dirty or scratced disc , and the reader cant read the data properly so will hang.....

Yep tried that. Its why I have a spare ;)

I get a new HDD tomorrow, so wil just use my xp pro disk and use that instead of home.

[swbarnett]

Generally macs are for homos.

Or flashers...

[Delphinus]

Im just going to get a higher powered psu (sourced a 300w, 400w+ is preferable but a 300 should be sufficient.)

Everything in my computer has been recently been upgrading in the last few months - except main hdd and psu - both of which are 3 years old - hence replacing.



What brand psu are you getting? 300w isnt much these days... But a 300w Antec/Thermaltake/ will often be better than a 400w cheapo brand.

[sAsLEX]

The only truly safe, in regards to data sensitivity, hard drive is a destroyed one... and even then, you have to do a very thorough job on it.

Similar but not quite


A murder case in the states hinged on the data on a floppy disc that had been shredded, so some army forensic scientist painstakingly taped it back together and got the data so to be truely destroyed it must be in little pieces