Must use ATA in bios for the hard drive.

Drive could be bad .

This here could be from faulty ram. I would run a program such as Memtest 86 to check for faulty ram.

If it were trying to boot XP with the SATA setting on AHCI or RAID it would BSOD with an error code 0x7b.

alexander910

Windows XP Clean Installation Process.

You should follow the below steps if you are not using RAID or don’t have an internal floppy drive connected to your system.

Remove any external devices from the computer, such as external serial or parallel port devices and external USB peripherals (not including your mouse, keyboard and monitor).

Within BIOS Setup: Set CD-ROM to load prior to hard drive.
Insert the Windows XP installation CD in the CD drive.
Restart your computer.
When the blue DELL logo is displayed, press the 'F2' key to enter the BIOS Setup.
Press the 'Down Arrow' key on your keyboard to highlight Boot Sequence.
Press the 'Enter' key to display the available boot devices.
Press the 'Up Arrow' key or the key to highlight IDE CD-ROM Device.
Press the 'U' key or the 'D' key on the keyboard to move IDE CD-ROM Device to the top of the list.
Press the 'Enter' key.
Within BIOS Setup: Switch from RAID Autodetect / AHCI to RAID Autodetect / ATA.
Press the 'Down Arrow' key on your keyboard to highlight SATA Operation.
Press the 'Enter' key to display the available RAID configuration modes.
Press the 'Right Arrow' key to select RAID Autodetect / ATA.
Press the 'Enter' key.
Press the 'Esc' key to exit Setup.
Press the 'Right Arrow' key to select Save/Exit.
Press the 'Enter' key.
Your system attempts to boot to the CD that is inserted in the CD drive.
Boot off the Windows XP SP2 installation CD.
The following message appears: Press any key to boot from the CD.
Press the 'Spacebar' to boot to the Windows XP SP2 installation CD.

The setup program will now copy files to your system. This will take several minutes, please wait. After the files have been copied, a message appears and notifies you that the computer will be restarted.
Press the Enter key to restart the computer or a timer will count down and restart the computer automatically.
Restart.
When the computer restarts, the following message appears: Press any key to boot from the CD.
Do not press any keys when this message appears and allow the operating system to load.
The Windows XP Setup window appears. Many devices will be detected during this process. This will take several minutes, please wait. Once this process is completed, the Regional and Language Options window appears.
Follow Windows XP SP2 configuration instructions.
After all hardware has been detected and the files have been copied to the hard drive, the system will restart. When the computer restarts, the following message appears: Press any key to boot from the CD.
Do not press any keys when this message appears and allow the operating system to load.
Once the Desktop appears, eject the Windows XP SP2 installation CD from the CD drive.

Then Install the drivers and applications in the following order,
Desktop System Software (if applicable)
Intel Chipset
Video Card
Network Interface Card (NIC)
Sound Card
Modem
All other drivers.
Install the Anti Virus utility and update the definitions, followed by all the critical Microsoft updates.

Note: During the installation of XP, remember to use the option to delete all the partitions and then recreate them.

Bev.

Compgeke,

I tried new ram I get the same result!! I do not get any error code, I changed the setting from AHCI to ATA and get the same result, " Setup is starting Windows" but is stuck there the process does not complete!!

SpeedStep,

Why must ATA be used in bios?? How do I do that?? HD works on other computer where I actually installed OS on that HD.

Elijah,

I HAVE TRIED DIFFERENT OS CD'S AND I GET THE SAME RESULT, IT BOOTS FROM THE CD STARTS THE PROCESS AND STOPS AT "SETUP IS STARTING WINDOWS". I INSTALLED THE OS ON ANOTHER COMPUTER, TOOK THE HD INSTALLED IT ON ANOTHER COMPUTER AND INSTALLED THE OS, THINKING I COULD THEN INSTALL THE HD BACK INTO THE DELL COMPUTER AND IT WOULD BOOT UP BUT NO LUCK. I TOOK OFF THE RAM AND INSTALLED NEW RAM BUT SAME THING IT BOOTS UP FROM CD STARTS THE PROCESS AND STOPS AT "SETUP IS STARTING WINDOWS". I HAVE RUN THE DIAGNOSTICS ON THE HD AND, ACCORDING TO THE DIAGNOSTICS, THE HD IS FINE.

ANY OTHER IDEAS???

SpeedStep, Why must ATA be used in bios?? How do I do that?? HD works on other computer where I actually installed OS on that HD.

ATA is REQUIRED not optional.  XP does not natively support AHCI/SATA Drives.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps400/sm/syssetup.htm

It appears that Alexander910 either has the correct installation disk, or has the SATA controller set to a compatible setting for his disk.  He is reaching the point at which Windows Setup is launching Windows XP from the hard drive.  If the SATA controller was the problem he would be stopped with a 0x0000007B error at the beginning.

I've been waiting for someone to ask him what port he is using for the drive; a single drive needs to be on SATA 0 as otherwise the BIOS will have trouble finding the bootable drive when setup starts Windows.

And you'll have to install the SATA driver from a floppy diskette during the XP installation when prompted to press F6 to install them.

If he installed the SATA driver during the installation then he has to open BIOS setup and change SATA Operation back to RAID Autodetect/ AHCI before XP will boot from the hard drive.

Ron,

The issue was with Windows XP so what I did was install Vista and it installed like it should, it is working again!!

Thank you all for your help!!!