Problem re-installing Windows xp...

The computer in my garage cooked its hard drive a while back. I have replaced it temporarily with a known-working smaller capacity used drive I pulled from another computer I had built. After partitioning and formatting the drive, I started an installation of xp. About 4 minutes in (based on the timer on the left of the screen), everything stops; the "working" icons on the lower right of the screen stop flashing, the hard drive activity light quits flashing, and the light on the front of my CD drive stays lit. Do I need to let it run for a little bit and maybe get past the hang-up, or is there a problem with this hard drive also? Or maybe there's another problem altogether? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance - Chris

 

Do you have another cd you can use?

 

Another drive, or the cd itself? I have a few other working drives. The cd is a full system-builder install copy; I also have an upgrade-from-98 copy, but what a hassle!

 

Try another drive first. Then go from there.

 

Actually, you can use an upgrade disc just like a full version disc, it's just that at some point in the install, it will ask you to put in the old disc just to verify that you have it. You don't actually have to install win98.

 

Unplug the CD drive, USBs, printers, scanners, cameras, and all the other peripherals. Use the Windows default video driver and a generic monitor driver for the install. After you finish re-installing plug them in one at a time -- and let Windows recognize them -- to see if any of them could be causing the slowdown.

Let the install run for as long as it wants. The worst thing you can do while re-formatting and re-loading is sit there in front of the computer. Your instinct tells you to abort & start over, but there are times when an install of Windows will think for ten minutes or more and give you no indication that it's doing anything. (Hmmm ... A great asset if you're playing poker!)

Go get a cup of coffee or a beer, play a round of golf, and maybe take your spouse on a long weekend getaway.

If that still doesn't do it, I'm betting on a video driver issue.

 

I'd try a Linux live CD first, see if it'll boot and if everything works- it won't even take five minutes to get an idea if things are correct. If there's a problem then the second thing I'd try is Ultimate Boot CD

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

or something of the sort, there're utilities there to help you figure out what the issue might be.

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