---

@vward wrote:

I am still having problems installing Windows upgrade to my Dell Dimension L866r, here is what I have done so far: -

Ran the Microsoft Upgrade Advisor and upgraded my BIOS to A14

Formatted the hard drive, a Maxtor 15gb drive 

Checked the jumper settings on the hard drive to see if it was the master.

Ran Fdisk to see if the partitions are right, it is, only one and it is the entire drive.

Stripped out all the cards I ever installed and disconnected everything other than the mouse and keyboard and monitor.

Here is what is happening: -

I am installing Windows XP from the upgrade CD, I format the drive as NTSF, I put the Windows ME CD in when prompted, I then put the Windows XP CD back in and follow the steps. The setup starts copying the files and then the system reboots and starts over again. The reboot is never at the same place.

Would having a CD/RW drive of 52/32/52 speed have anything to do with it? It would be curious if so because WIndows ME installs with no problems whatever.

This is now driving me nuts because it should be a simple install and I have followed every suggestion and tip seen on this and other boards.

Can anybody, preferably from Dell give me a simple answer or solution to my problem?

Victor:

All Dell hard drives should be jumpered as Cable Select.

Set BIOS to boot from CD.

Boot from the CD, choose the install path.  Remove all partitions, make one partition, and format it with NTFS.  You do NOT need to parition and format outside of this process. 

Make sure you have your system disconnected from the internet until you enable your firewall. 

if you formatted with ntfs, does that mean that you booted from the win xp cd so as to be able to delete the partitions found by win xp during the installation process, created a new partition, and then formatted (full format) the harddrive with ntfs (using the win xp cd in the cd-rom drive)? after formatting, the files will begin to load from the win xp cd so as to install win xp.. it is possible that the process could hang where a file cannot be copied from the cd to the harddrive.. if that happens, shut the computer down and then try again..

something you could try is using dells' harddrive debug..

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=1011054&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

as rick said, the harddrive should by set to cable select, and you need to adjust the "system setup", the bios settings, moving the cd-rom drive up to "first boot device", or "1", in the boot sequence..

sorry that you have had so much trouble..