Well my last motherboard started acting up, so I bought an ASUS A8V K8T800PRO. I decided to reformat my hard drive and do a fresh install of Windows while I was at it. Boothing Windows XP installation off a CD, and reformating works fine. When the installation process starts, does the copying files and everything, but then when it needs to reboot before continuing thats where problems arise. The system reboots, but then seems to completely forget that it was installing windows. Just goes back to the main screen of the Windows XP installation disc, and if I again choose where to install to, I get a warning about installing two operating systems to the same partition, even though installation never went through.
Anyone had this problem? Or now a way to get installation to work?
May also be a note that after the bios get through with its deal, and the system goes to boot the Windows XP disc, it takes a long while. I didn't actually time it, but it seems to just hang on a black screen for a good five minutes or so.

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Quick guide (which should work):

1) Boot from the CD
2) When you get to partition selection delete them all and then hit ENTER on the blank space.
3) Format it using NTFS or FAT32, whichever you prefer.
4) When the PC reboots, TAKE OUT THE CD.
5) Setup will continue.

Hope that helps,

When I take CD out after it reboots, setup doesn't continue. Instead I'm presented with "reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"
It finds my hard drive on startup, so its not that it just doesn't seen the hard drive and can't continue because of that.
My hard drive is primary master, and CD is secondary master. Got same message when CD was primary slave.

just try to reofmatt your disk and then restart.

then install windows without reformatting the disk.


The cd may be scratched, make sure its clean.

if its damaged, dont buy a new one. there are some great simple tutorials on how to repair cd's.

check out www.pass-pirates.net in their tutorials

Well I have two different Windows XP discs, both have the same problem. Maybe theres something wrong where, after the files get copied over to memory and the system reboots, memory is cleared. If the files that were copied over, are lost during reboot... seems like a reasonable guess to me. But not sure what would cause that.

hmm sorry man i dont knwo what to do.

you can try to buy a cheap disk drive (internal or external) there only 20 dollars, and try to boot off that.

Make sure that the two following conditions exist:

1. You're using a legitimate Windows XP installation disk (not a copy).

2. You're CMOS battery isn't dead or dying (longshot).

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.