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April 3rd, 2005 21:00

Laptop is stuck at "Setup is Starting Windows"

I am reinstalling Windows XP and my computer is stuck at step 9 (see below).  I don't believe there is enough available memory for it to go any further.  When I hit enter, nothing happens.  I reinstalled Windows yesterday and everything went fine but I did not delete anything off the partitions yesterday so I think they are too full to do this again.  The reason I am reinstalling is because my computer was incredibly slow yesterday and I believe that is because I didn't delete anything off of the partitions- only installed.  I would like to wipe my computer clean and completely start over.  Help- how can I erase everything so I have enough memory to proceed?
 
 
 
1. Turn the computer completely off.
2. Restart the computer and start tapping the F12 key at the Dell logo on the first screen.
3. You will see one time boot menu listing a couple of options to boot the computer from.
Note : You may or may not see the one time boot menu depending on the Hard Drive content. If you don't see it the first time, please repeat the steps above. If you still don't see it, you probably need to change the boot sequence in the BIOS and boot off the XP cd.
4. Insert the Windows XP CD in the drive now.
5. Select "CD/DVD" option from this screen and press "Enter" key.
6. The computer will display a message asking to "Press any key to boot from the CD".
7. Press any key on the keyboard immediately as you will have only 3 seconds to press a key.
8. Now you should see a blue screen with "Windows Setup" written on top.
9. At the end of this screen, you will have options either to get into "Recovery Console" by pressing "R" or to setup Windows XP by pressing "Enter" key. Please press the "Enter" key.
10. The next screen should be to accept the agreement. Please read the agreement and press "F8" to accept it.
11. The next screen would have an option to press "Esc" key to setup a fresh copy of windows XP.
Note : A few of the options may change depending on the hard drive content. Please take your decision to select the appropriate option that would lead to a format of the hard drive.
12. The next screen would list the partitions available to setup windows XP on. Please select the partition that is largest in size and press "Enter" key.
13. Press "C" to continue using the same partition on the next screen.
14. The next screen would list a few different options to format the partition. Please select "NTFS(Quick)".
15. Press "F" to format the drive now.
16. The computer will format the hard drive and will copy certain files off the CD on to the computer and will restart.
17. Let the computer boot off the hard drive this time and it will start the windows XP installation phase which will take about 39 minutes.
18. Please answer all the questions that will be asked during setup. The computer will restart once this phase is complete.
19. Computer will ask you for a few basic settings and creation of user accounts.
20. After this the computer will be back up and running to the normal mode. You are requested to install the Drivers off the "Drivers and Utilities" cd. You need to install all the ones which are checked by clicking on them. The first one that needs to be installed is "Chipset". If Chipset is not available, you can pickup any in any sequence. Please click the respective driver and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.
21. After installation of the drivers, you can use any cd in any sequence to install the softwares that came preloaded on the laptop.

4K Posts

April 4th, 2005 01:00

I suggest you use DelPart.EXE from this site to make a diskette and use it to delete the Partition table from the Drive. When the partitions are deleted, the format and files go with them. Then start over with your W-XP CD and let it Partition and Format the drive before Windows setup

http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm

2 Posts

April 4th, 2005 01:00

Thanks- I got passed that stage but I now have a new problem- I'll post it later

April 7th, 2005 16:00

Run the diagnostics...this sounds like my symptoms, I had to buy a new hard drive and completely reinstall, but it works perfectly now.

Power on, hit F12, select diagnostics from the menu.

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