Problems installing XP on a new HD

D

devolution

Geek Trainee
Am having major problems installing XP Home on a new hard drive after my old one died on me.

bought a new seagate 7200.10 250GB drive to replace it, but after running the XP setup program for over 7 hours it still had not completed, it showed progress, installing the files, but took AGES, so i rang seagate and they reckoned it was faulty.

after waiting 3 weeks for a replacement to be sent out i got my new one yesterday but the same thing happened. i cant see me being unlucky enough to get 2 faulty hard drives in a row, but can't think what the problem could be...

any ideas/solutions? any other hardware that could be causing the problem?

cheers.
 
Ive had this problem before whilst installing stuff. Rome TW took 2 days!
Is it a genuine copy of XP? It sounds like a cd-r problem to me. I wont say to burn a new cd because thats probably against forum rules! :O :rolleyes:
 
I agree with Zeus. I would try another copy of windows xp. It should only take about 2 hours to install Xp.. Make sure you format the hard drive first, and do you have the settings set on master jumper...?
 
cheers for the ideas guys.

i tried at first with my master copy of XP, but then slipstreamed (or streamlined? i forget...) my copy to include SP2 so it would recognise the entire 250GB hard disk. with both copies it went slowly.

i've also tried it with both my CD drives with the same result. have my HDD set on Cable Select, as per the instructions with Seagate, and set to LBA (possibly the wrong name, i forget again...), is that what you mean by master jumper. will try and hunt down another copy of XP Home.

cheers.
 
Set the hard drive to master,and stick the connection on the first one.
next How much ram do you have ? You will need at least 256 mb ram,But I would boost it to 512mn ram or higher...
 
RAM could be the culprit here... Download [link=http://www.memtest.org]Memory Test 86 +[/link] and check your RAM....
[ot]
Ghostman said:
You will need at least 256 mb ram
Click to expand...
Wrong! Minimun requirements are 128MB and Xp can work on 64Mb as well but u will lose some features.......
[/ot]
 
Currently have 1GB RAM, so don't think that should be a problem, though suppose some or all of it could be faulty. I'll run memtest.

tried running the setup program today again, and it seems that it runs at a normal speed for about 45 minutes to an hour, then goes really slow (when XP is copying the setup files, it takes about half an hour to get to 60%, then slows down massively. don't know if half an hour is an acceptable time, but definately slows down after then...)

could this be a problem with overheating? don't know much about HDD's, but if they get too hot will they start running slower?

Cheers again.
 
Karanislove wrote:::

Wrong! Minimun requirements are 128MB and Xp can work on 64Mb as well but u will lose some features.......


Some features, If you want your computer to run like a SLUG,then yea !
XP does not like 64 or 128 mb ram.. 256 is even a little low ,I would go with at least 512 or more... Thats if you want your computer to run Right..
 
It could be that your CD is scratched. I had a crappy Windows XP install CD and it took forever to install. Once in a while it would say it couldn't copy a file. So i had to switch back and forth between two Windows CDs until installation was complete. After that i made a clean backup of my Windows CD and now all is fine. Burning a backup of your own Windows CD shouldn't be taboo. aqcuiring an illegal cd key is wrong though. As long as you use your own key i don't see why you shouldn't backup your copy as cd's get scratched to the point that they're unusable from time to time.
 
Ghostman 1 said:
Karanislove wrote:::

Wrong! Minimun requirements are 128MB and Xp can work on 64Mb as well but u will lose some features.......


Some features, If you want your computer to run like a SLUG,then yea !
XP does not like 64 or 128 mb ram.. 256 is even a little low ,I would go with at least 512 or more... Thats if you want your computer to run Right..
Click to expand...

I think its mainly down to the desktop theme. I agree its a bit pointless having less than 256mb, its a bit like Vista with 1gb :)

Ive never tried running XP with less than 512mb but after all its not much different than 2000 and that seems OK 128mb. Ive never tried less.

Like baretta, ive had to swap from one disk to another before! Maybe try using a cd lens cleaner disk. Im assuming they are ok to use on cd-rs, but im not entirely sure.
 
Hi guys,

Tried running Memtest86 on both my 512MB memory modules, then one at a time, and each time it was running slow - after running the program for 2 and a half hours it had only got through 1/3 of one complete test - something isn't right.

either both modules have become faulty at the same time, or its not the memory. I'm thinking the latter...

all the programs i've tried to run (XP setup and Memtest86) are both on CD, though i've tried both discs in both CD drives with the same result, so i'm thinking it isn't a faulty CD or CD drive. this is making me think it could be the processor (basically its the only thing i havent discounted!!) - "its knackered so everything's running slow" - does this sound like a possibility? (as i've mentioned before i'm pretty new at this stuff so i could easily be wrong).

p.s. it would be nice if someone could tell me i'm wrong about this - current finances don't really stretch to replacing my CPU!

Cheers again.
 
What's the specs of this system...include the power supply make and model (yes, you'll have to look inside the case for this).
 
Wow.. I'm having this problem too and it's frustrating me to no extent.

I just want to return the drive and get a completely different one. (Though I would like to try and fix it first.)

The drive is Seagate 7200.10 320GB Firmware 3.AAE (Made in China).

My Specs:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (Rev.1) (Socket 939) (I'm trying to get the drive to work using the NVIDIA sata controller)
Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
7800GT
2x Corsair CMX512-3200C2 running in dual channel

I'm trying to intall Windows XP Professional w/ SP2.

Thanks
 
Oh, I forgot to mention I installed XP (From same drive, same disc) to my old IDE drive and it went flawlessly.

So would testing my memory still be necessary?
 
On which drive you wants to install your OS?

If SATA, then
Did you set your SATA drive as a master from your comuter BIOS?
 
I'm installing it on my SATA. And I've tried with the IDE disconnected and only the SATA connected, and it still installs very slowly.

But when I am in windows xfer rates are good and everything works well.
 
PRT said:
I'm installing it on my SATA. And I've tried with the IDE disconnected and only the SATA connected, and it still installs very slowly.
Click to expand...
How much time is it taking for the complete installation of windows on your SATA drive?
 
I don't know as I haven't let it run completely, but after an hour it's not even 50% copying over the setup files. Something is definately not working right.

Shortly I will be running Seagate's SeaTools on the drive to check for errors.
 
Yea, that would be a good idea.... Also I cannot think of any other idea about this problem but there must be some other member's on this forum would be able to help you....
 
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