How to get XP to install!?

[JHoxley]

hi all,

I'm generally good with computers, such that in the last few years theres only been a few things that have had me confused

but this one is killing me

I had some problems with my primary physical HDD (it seems to have died, properly (overuse/old age)). Until then I was running a secondary physical drive (60gb / 3 partitions) to store files (music, videos etc...). Since the primary unit failed I took it out and put the secondary unit in as the master device... and went about trying to install WinXP Pro from scratch on one of the partitions.

I get so far with XP setup - it gives me a list of three partitions (C,D,E) with the correct labels and volume sizes (30gb, 20gb, 10gb). I try selecting ANY of the drives for installation, and WinXP says "setup needs to install some system files on this partition to continue... this partition is not a windows xp-compatible partition" and then asks me to create one.

fair enough. I format the drive to NTFS - no files on it, proper format (using the recovery console)... but it still won't recognise it!!

what do I need to do to these partitions to get WinXP to <i>start</i> installing!! I'll be fine from there I think, but with XP you can't get to a proper command prompt with FDisk/Format etc... which is what I'd normally try...


any help? plz!! I've got a few bits of CompSci coursework stored on the drive that I need to get working on

regards,
Jack

PS - I've tried the MS website, couldn't find any mention of this error, or anything remotely useful.

 

[marty10g]

Which partition are you trying to install on, I am not all together sure but could it be that it needs to go on the "C" partition

INTELigence is gained by obtaining aMD

 

[btvillarin]

When you're choosing the partition you're going to install on, <i>delete it first</i>. Then, install onto it, so setup tells you to format it. (In other words, make sure you got nothing on the partition you're going to install to.)

Bryan

<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=329" target="_new"><b>My System Rig</b></A> (courtesy of <A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com" target="_new">btvillarin.com</A>)

 

[leebrownusa]

It may be you already have a good solution from the previous replies but here's my two cents. I keep a few bootable floppies around from the "Jurassic" period with these utilities (Fdisk.exe, Format.com, etc). I'd boot the machine to said bootable floppy and fdisk the drive you want to load XP on. Then, format it from same bootable floppy. Then start the XP install normally by booting to the CD and choose the drive you just fdisk'd and formatted.

I built a new PC with my son earlier this year and I did just those steps on a new hard drive (C before starting the XP install. Everything went very smooth (Ya, I probably didn't have to but it's hard to get away from the old command line stuff that seems to always work).

 

[TomV]

I found the above works easiest for me, also. Fdisk with a Win98 boot disk. Then install XP from CD.