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A problem with installing Windows

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Ok, so today, Windows XP on my laptop got so messed-up (I like to download lots of rubbish :thumb: ) that I had to reinstall, so I got my copy of Windows XP out of the draw and noticed it was quite scratched, but I thought I'd try it anyway. So, I put it in and booted it from start-up and went into the text base installing, went through a few screens until I came to formatting, I selected format it in the FAT format and it began formatting, it got to 5% then just froze there, and I waited a while and still not past 5%. So I thought, must be the disk scratched, so I borrowed another copy from a friend and tried to install that and it still froze at 5%. Which means there must be something wrong with my laptop, but I haven't dropped it or anything so I can't see why it would be physically broken. I'd try and to a reformat with the reformat floppys, but my laptop hasn't got an A drive.

Any ideas on what's wrong and what I could do about it? I don't feel like shelling out another £600 :no: .

Thanks,
burninginme

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sounds like this is nothing to do with the XP disk but everything to do with the hard drive in your laptop, which seems to have developed an error with the disk. You could possibly try formatting a smaller partition to install windows in, otherwise you could get a replacement hard drive.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    which kind of formatting have you done when installing XP, I know it's FAT but have you selected the fast one or full one?

    Just asking cos I had the same thing happended to me in the past and sometimes selecting (fast) did the job. It's probably not that, but it is worth
    the shot.

    Also if your system doesn't have a A drive there is some free bootable CD on the web with all the tools to do the format DOS style...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    surely xp shouldn't be in FAT?
    and did you choose to do it over the existing copy or in a new ...wotsit ...errr ...partition?
    you don't want it in a new one.
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    Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    Get a new Laptop HDD, or try grabbing a cheap USB floppy. Or borrow one if you can, and format the drive.

    Be cheaper buying a new HDD though, really. As it sounds like it is the HDD that is dead.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    morrocan roll wrote:
    surely xp shouldn't be in FAT?
    .

    Yep, it should be in NTFS. Though NTFS is more pickey about formatting, so he'd have less chance ;)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    burninginme wrote:
    Ok, so today, Windows XP on my laptop got so messed-up (I like to download lots of rubbish :thumb: ) that I had to reinstall, so I got my copy of Windows XP out of the draw and noticed it was quite scratched, but I thought I'd try it anyway. So, I put it in and booted it from start-up and went into the text base installing, went through a few screens until I came to formatting, I selected format it in the FAT format and it began formatting, it got to 5% then just froze there, and I waited a while and still not past 5%. So I thought, must be the disk scratched, so I borrowed another copy from a friend and tried to install that and it still froze at 5%. Which means there must be something wrong with my laptop, but I haven't dropped it or anything so I can't see why it would be physically broken. I'd try and to a reformat with the reformat floppys, but my laptop hasn't got an A drive.

    Any ideas on what's wrong and what I could do about it? I don't feel like shelling out another £600 :no: .

    Thanks,
    burninginme

    i think the reason xp screwed up in yoru case was the fact that the hard disc is screwed
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Get a live cd with hdd repair and diagnostic tools on it, and see if you can fix it that way. It might have bad sectors windows hasnt recognised, so tries to write there and it then doesnt work.
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