XP REINSTALL

[anpetty]

new hard drive(SATA), used oem install disc, partitioned drive, made 3 partitions, wanted to put windows on c, put in product key, did not install, used Partition Magic to reformat "windows" drive to FAT 32. other partitions intact Disc will not work gets to " examining computer hardware configuration" will not go further. What do I do now?

 

[rondi]

new hard drive(SATA), used oem install disc, partitioned drive, made 3 partitions, wanted to put windows on c, put in product key, did not install, used Partition Magic to reformat "windows" drive to FAT 32. other partitions intact Disc will not work gets to " examining computer hardware configuration" will not go further. What do I do now?

I just went thru a frustrating reinstall of XP. What I found was--it is much better to not partition BEFORE you install XP. I tried the recovery consol and did the format, fixboot, fixmbr etc trying to get it to install. You can Partition after--assuming your partition is large enough so you don't put some of C: in D:. I partitioned my C: after the XP install to 60GB.

I just had to reinstall today because my Restore did not work. so I just started over. BUT I did not have to remove the other partitions. So it may make a difference if the XP install disk does the format and the initial partition.

I suggest you remove all your partitions using the XP install disk, and then make your whole disk 1 partition. Do a format (i just used quick format) while in the SP installer. Oh, and I formatted to NTFS 4k

HTH, Ron