xp repair????

[Grasshopper1]

Hello all ,

I have been having some problems with my system ( OEM win XP Pro) so I tried to do a repair . The problem now is I was a short way through the repair and it froze solid nothing would work , I had to reset and figured I would reformat and clean install , that froze solid a short way through and now I can't get either repair or reformat to finish . has anyone else had this problem ??? and if so what the devil can I do about it ?????
I have reformated before and had no problems .

Thanks for any help,

Frank

[DallasDon]

It could be a couple of things:

Make sure the Windows CD is clean, and free of scratches.

Set your BIOS to "fail safe defaults" until the system loads.

Windows doesn't like to be born in an ambulance ride to the hospital.. It likes 100 FSB and one stick of ram.

[speedstik]

The obvious first thing you may want to do, if you haven't already is checking the disk for scratches, smudges, etc...

[S.D.Willie]

if the disc is good try a different cdrom drive. if you have the opportunity, go to the manufacturer's site of your hard drive, download the utility tools to check the HD for errors. you can try this last though if other formats have gone fine.

ive seen in a few cases that a bad stick of ram was causing files to be skipped on the cd causing a hell of alot of errors. dont know if it applies to you but it was worth mentioning.

[electric]

Originally posted by speedstik
The obvious first thing you may want to do, if you haven't already is checking the disk for scratches, smudges, etc...

i agree ,check your installation cd first

you can also if you have one boot from a win98se start up
diskette than you can do a format if you are using fat 32 or
use fdisk and delete the non dos partition [4] make a new
partition ,reboot ,format ,reboot with your xp pro cd in tray

[Grasshopper1]

No luck

I looked at my disc and it was clean , I tried to finish repair and no go it still freezes solid.
I was running with NTFS.

Thanks
Grasshopper

[DoctorReno]

When I have this problem I take the CD to the kitchen sink, put a drop of liquid detergent on it and with lukewarm water wash it with clean fingers and then dry with a clean absorbent cloth towel.

Next, if I am going to do a clean install I like to start by doing a zero fill format then boot from the CD and start the installation.
However, since this is an OEM CD it is possible that the CD is not a complete version and some of the files needed may be in a hidden partition on your HD. Who is the system mfg you bought the system from?

[evereddie]

The 2 times I had a problem installing xp it came down to problems with the ram. Blew my mind but it kept hanging at the same spot and I was convinced it was the disc. Put in 1 stick of new ram I had and everything went great.

If you have some scratches on a cd or dvd use a mild cleaner and then Armor All or a similar silicon polish. It will fill in the tiny scratches and make it readable if it was too scratched to read. Also a good furniture polish like lemon pledge will work in a pinch but is not as 'good' for the disc as Armor-all.

[The_Shooter]

I think your problem is the RAM. I have had the problem of installing an OS and it would just freeze up as you are saying. It took me a bit to figure out the problem. Once I put new RAM in it, the OS installed perfectly.

[Grasshopper1]

DoctorReno

My disc is a full version .
Can you tell me what a zero fill format is and how to perform one ???
Thanks ,
Grasshopper