safe mode
 

hey guys whats up.....my friend just bought a used computer that had windows xp home edition. he didnt want home edition, so he went to the store and bought himself the professsional edition. during the 3rd step, which is belive is installing the devices....it stopped at the 50% mark. so we took the disk out and cleaned hoping that would solve our problems but nope. it didnt work...everytime i restart the computer it immediately starts off where it left which is installing the devices after the boot sequence. it starts reading the reading the cd rom data and after it hangs at 50% for like a very very very long time and plus the disc stops spinning like it cant read the file or something or some crap. so i was wondering how do i go into safe mode cause i want to go back before this even happened and do a system restore check and forgot this ever happened....lol any help is appreciated

did you have to format the drive when you first started the install process?
If so you may not be able to go back before the prob and correct it.
What are the specs on the PC? (processor, mem, hdd)
You can try removing all of the devices in the computer except for the ones you need to perform the install. (rom drive) Then attempt the install again. When you first get started, you should be able to reformat the drive and wipe clean any previous install attempts and start fresh. Hopefully there is a device or 2 that is conflicting and by removing them will allow you to proceed with the install. Once (If) you get through the install successfully, you can put the devices back in and proceed to do the setup on them one by one. I know this sounds like a pain but if your prob is a conflicting device, this may be the only way to tell. You would think that if the home edition was previously installed, you would have no probs with the Pro edition. Very odd!

ummm..he has a HP computer with a 1.1Ghz processor, 256mb ram. running on windows xp home edition(well was anyway) so i just loaded the damn thing after the pc was running already and it came up to the windows xp pro menu...so i did all that and then it said upgrade(recommended) and i checked that one. and everything was going smoothly until about the 3rd stage which is installing devices and after the hafl way point ...it just hangs there for toooo phreaking long. so i tried to reboot like 20 times and each time after the boot sequence is over it goes windows xp pro installation restarted and it starts off again on the 3rd stage and again it would hang in the middle of it. his HP had the HDD partioned into sections..i think one was in case someting bad happened it would use that section to boot up normallly. cause it showed HDD... C & D but when i opened it up it had only one drive. so i must of installed pro in that partion of the HDD. but i think im gonna have to disconnect the HDD and leave the cd rom drive connected so that the pc can boot up from there once i put the cd rom and load it up so that it can do a clean install.

try going into the bios and make sure the boot sequence is cd then hd, if this is not the way it is already. Then boot the winxp pro cd in the rom drive. From there it should go into the part where you can remove all partitions then you can repartition it with whatever partitions you want. then run the format and reinstall from the boot. it should work.
btw is the pro version a full ver or an upgrade ver? hopefully it is the full.
If its the upgrade, a previous ver of xp will be required and i will have to say, i have never had any luck with upgrade vers. they are a waste of time and money.

the sequence is in order but the stupid thing immediatley jumps to the part of the installation process where it hangs for a long ass time. or maybe the boot sequence is not the way i wanted it...which is the cd rom and then the HDD, cause when i go to set up in the HP screen it says HDD is the first one...i dont know why that is sense i know that i put the cd rom first and i saved changes in the bios. cause evertyime it boots up and goes straight to the windows xp pro installation and starts off right where it left off...sux so much ass. btw its not upgrade cd rom its the full version. his pc's bios sux u cant disale the hdd boot sequence ..cause i can do that to mine and what will force the pc too boot from the cd rom drive and it will start a fresh clean install...any help ...i think this bios is old skool cause icant even the safe mode opiton in here....sux ass..lol

when i reinstall xp i always do a clean install caus that can happen. As cgl said remove hardware which is unsesary to the install. Ethernet modem and any other toys u got in there. It just could be xp being incompatiable with it.

These lil probs are exactly why I dont like winxp (any version). MS just trying to keep up with a new edition every 2 to 3 yrs, got pressed for time as Bill puts a limit on production date, thus resulting in unfinished business which ends up being the consumers headaches. We not only pay the price, WE PAY the PRICE. Grrrrrrr...ok I just had to get that out of my system. In my opinion, If you want one of the best versions MS ever put out, then get win98se. That is one of the most reliable versions they have ever made. Not only did they take their time making it into a quality release, they also took pressure out of the equation. End results speak for themselves. Win2000 would be a close second choice as its not too bad either, but i have read that most of these new virus' are targeted toward win2000 and winxp.

hey guys my friend was soo mad that he even bought a new hdd yesterday and installed it correctly with the correct jumpers and everything...and the pc wouldnt let him install windows xp pro on that drive at all. after the bios ..it jumped to a black screen saying ....damn i forgot what was the name of file....is missing. so i was wondering if i can put in his new hdd in my pc and reformat it and install windows xp and then take it out put it in my friends computer? or do u think it wont work sense it will have the bios from my pc?

yea thata work

hey seaneyb, how sure are u of this will work? so ur saying it will work even though i formatted it and and installed xp under my pc's bios and configurations that it wouldnt have a conflict once i install the freshly xp installed hdd back to my friend's pc?

I have used this method with a 486 dx4 a long time ago and I wanted to put win98 on it but it didnt want to go so I put it on a different system and it did work so in your case, you can only try it and see. If it does have a conflict booting up, you will find out right away. There is a 50/50 chance it will work.

hmmm I heard of a situation like this but the guy had a pirated version of XP that he downloaded and burned to a CD and I guess he had all the installation files in a folder on the CD he burned unlike the official CD that has all the installation files not in a folder. When it got to the part you are speaking of it reboots a few times while its installing the devices then looks for the installation files to be where they are suppose to be on the CD and cant find them and just hangs or gives you the message that a file is missing cuz its not where its suppose to be. I guess the guy finally reburned the CD the way its suppose to be and got around this problem, but the dumb ass then couldn’t get online cuz of some stupid reason and ended up buying the official windows XP anyway just to fix all his f-ups's. Not saying this is what you are doing just thought I would share this story with you.

I heard the same thing from a guy who buys pizza at my shop and I told him to buy a real copy. Never heard from him again. lol

thanx guys for quick responses....i appreciate it. lets say i dont want do all that stuff that i said above...how about i just do a clean install ...start fresh..how would i do that. on my pc's bios i can disable the hdd and let the dvd rom be the only boot sequence available which will force the pc to start reading from the cd ,which will then start the process of a clean install. his pc's bios doesnt have that option...it just has on how u want the boot sequence to be arranged....u can't disable drives or anyting.. that kinda sux cause if it did that could make my job alot easier. the only thing i can think of is to unplugg the eide cable which will force the pc to use the cd rom as the main source. but if i do that, then there will be no data being stored when it start to do a clean install....i guess my last and final choice would be to take it to a computer shop or somthing like that.

You shouldnt have to disable the HDD in the bios if you can arrange the boot sequence to boot the CD rom first, and I dont think you would want to disable the HDD in the bios cuz wouldnt that halt you from installing to the HDD once it boots from the CD?

nope...cause on my pc i can disable the hdd in the bios and i can still install windows to the hdd. but after its done installing everything. i go back to my bios and enable the hdd again...so that i can boot up from the hdd again...very simple process...to bad my friends pc bios doesnt have that option.

yea ita be fine i had a compaq pc that wouldnt load windows xp so i wacked it in my pc and installed it.

so the chances of the new hdd with a clean install of windows that i did from my pc will not work in his ? 50/50?

ita be cool just do it.

my advice would be to try it since you got nothing to lose anyway and if that dont work, check the manufacture website out for his pc and see if there is a bios flash update. Do try the first method (Hdd swap trick) then go from there. it should work though.

thanx guys i will do that.but now which method should i do? take the one i have right now on my pc out and replace it with the new and do a clean install or install the new hdd along side with my current hdd? and if i could do it along side with my current hdd..what are the steps needed?

after giving this more thought, I'm not so sure this will work as the winxp is nt based and will setup the devices in your pc, thus resulting in not booting in his due to the registry. It has to do with any pci cards in your friends pc that was not in it at the time it was bought. I appologize for not thinking of this sooner as I dont use xp anymore cause it sux. You can still give it a shot though and test my theory. I still believe it has got to be a card or something that was added after being preprogrammed. I could however be wrong about this but it doesnt make sence that home works and pro does not. they are almost the same with a few extra addons. My regards and I hope I am wrong with this annalysis.

Do a search on google for a program called MEMTEST86.

Run it on your computer and it will create a bootable floppy disc which will automatically run memtest.

Boot this floppy on ur mates computer and leave it to run for 30mins-1hr.

Then report back to me and let me know if it shows any errors. Windows XP uses an extensive amount of ram when installing and if the ram is corrupt or set to the wrong bus speed then it will crash out like you're describing.

Lemme know dude

just to avoid more major headaches....he decided to just take it where he got it from. they didnt ask no questions as to what happened and all that junk..they just took back in their repair department and they fixed it in about an hour. they restored to the way it was. i learned my lesson.....dont try to fix other peoples machines....and also if it isnt broken...dont fix it.

Glad you got it sorted! ;)

glad that ordeal is over....haha

thats my moto too.

LOL :p