Reinstalling XP Pro --- Having some problems

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@Skipmcc wrote:

In the last few days I have reinstalled XP SP2 several times onto my 8300, and not getting the results I need.  Have read this forum many times over the past week, and trying different things, but still not getting it.

 

What I desire is a clean reformatted hard drive, with at least two partitions, one for programs and OS, one for data.  I can't seem to get to that option.  I haven't been able to reformat (I think), and I haven't been able to partition.  If necessary, I will purchase Partition Magic today to assist.  And I really do desire to do a clean format of the drive.

 

By the way, there is a 40 Meg partition on my 120 G drive, and not sure what the FAT32 partition is for, but I am leaving it alone.  This was purchased in 2003, by the way.

 

During the reinstall process, I usually follow the following steps:

1.  Set the boot drive to the CD.

2.  Boot up to Windows.

3.  Install the XP Pro SP2 disk in there.

4.  Get a startup screen to Install XP, which I do.

 

Then, it is almost lock step through to the finish.  I do see a popup screen (Advanced Features tab) to change the location of the drive where temporary setup files are written to assist, but everytime I change it from Windows, there is an error.  I even check the box to "change drive and location" for setup files, and no joy.

 

I have been unable to Delete the partition for the hard drive, as it says I have already installed required setup files on this drive.  Then, even though I try to abort, the program keeps me in an endless loop, and I end up reinstalling XP again.  sigh......

 

I do have another drive that I have 10 GB of free space on, that I could use for the location of the temporary setup files for XP, but I have not yet figured out how to copy the files to that drive.

 

How can I copy those setup files to another drive?  I do have a CD burner on board, but not sure that is the answer either.

 

 

To be honest, I am not even sure the XP SP2 disk is "booting", as it seems to go to the C drive to pick up Windows.

 

I have tried to boot up to the CD, and it seems to be bypassed, even though it is at the top of the bootup list.

 

I also found a file called winxp_en_pro_bf.exe, which I have not opened yet.  I believe it makes a CD bootable to Windows XP, but did not find any documentation how that would help.

 

Any suggestions from the Experts on this forum would be helpful.  

 

The 40mb partition is for the Dell diagnostics.

You are correct that it seems you are not booting to the CD.  Here's why.  You tell the computer to boot to the CD (via F12 or F2).  Then you boot to Windows.  THEN you insert the CD...  That causes XP to boot while Windows is running.

The PROPER method is to make the CD the bootable device via F12 or F2, open the CD drive, put in the CD, and then finish the boot.  It then uses the CD to boot from.

By reformatting the C partition, you will then be able to repartition the space and make your two partitions, format the first one and install XP, then format the second one from Windows Disk Management.

Message Edited by rickmktg on 08-09-2005 11:37 AM

Thanks for the suggestions.  Got it partitioned finally.

What I had to do was to use F2 to change the 1st boot drive to the CD (this was already done), and THEN I unchecked the C drive as the boot drive.  For some reason the computer kept jumping over the CD drive and booting off of C.  Once I changed this, I was able to delete the C partition, repartition, reformat, etc.

Have partitioned the drive into two, OS & Programs, and Data. 

Thx again.

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@Skipmcc wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions.  Got it partitioned finally.

What I had to do was to use F2 to change the 1st boot drive to the CD (this was already done), and THEN I unchecked the C drive as the boot drive.  For some reason the computer kept jumping over the CD drive and booting off of C.  Once I changed this, I was able to delete the C partition, repartition, reformat, etc.

Have partitioned the drive into two, OS & Programs, and Data. 

Thx again.

That's because your system has two optical drives, and the one you put at the top was the wrong one.  If you check the list, you'll find another optical drive further down, after the hard drive, which is the one you ended up booting off.