Win XP endless install loop

[kethnaab]

I am trying to install XP Pro from the CD onto a Windows Celeron 633 with 192 MB
of RAM and a 30GB HDD.

The computer recognizes the CD and HDD, asks if I want to install any 3rd party drivers
and the like (F6 button)

It keeps on going, formats using NTFS, starts copying files for installation, then
gets to a point that says 'This portion of setup has completed successfully, remove
any disks from the A:\ drive, computer will reboot in 15 seconds.'

so it reboots, and it goes through the cycle again.

It reads the CD, asks if I want to setup Windows XP, then says "hey, there
is already a \windows directory on the C:\ drive, do you want to do a dual
boot, do you want to delete the contents of this folder and install windows there,
or do you want to install to a separate directory", then it gives
some gibberish about checking the microsoft website for advice on dual booting.

It does this over and over and over again. I tried disabling ACPI in my
BIOS, and hitting F5 while setup was starting, but the F5 didn't seem to do
anything at all. I tried ejecting the XP CD ROM and restarting, but then it
starts up and says "Missng Operating System"

why the heck does XP insist on restarting, only to go through the exact same setup
steps again? And why can't I disable ACPI?

bah. thanks for any help.

this is driving me nuts.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

go into your BIOS and disable boot from CD

_______________
STFU

 

[Zoron]

Don't press any key to boot from the CD!

Once the install has finished, just leave the keyboard alone until Windows loads from the hard drive. Once it's done copying files, it doesn't need to boot from the CD again... but it will need the CD to copy files.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[icyjets2003]

I am having this exact same problem. No matter what I try I keep getting the same result. I disabled CD Boot and then I get a messege 'Invalid BOOT.INI file Booting from C:\windows\ NTDETECT failed'. In all other cases, I'm just stuck in the endless install loop as described above.

Wouldn't make much sense to me why you would want to disable the CDROM on boot if that is where the install is originating anyways (BTW...I have other systems that I have run fresh installs on and there is no problem leaving this enabled).

Just to add that the HDD is on the primary IDE channel with the CDROM as the slave (both are detected and are flawless in BIOS, everything has checked out. No additional cards of any type are installed on the board either.

I would appreciate any help anyone can offer. Thanks.

 

[icyjets2003]

Problem resolved for my case anyway...found an older copy of Windows XP Pro (32 bit). Installed the 32 bit copy just fine. After that I threw my 64 bit copy in the machine, rebooted to the CDROM and the disc installed like a dream. I guess the disc wasn't transferring a setup file it needed for some reason or it was having trouble reading it from the disc. That's all I can figure.