Install of xp pro in endless loop

[mfg45]

I am trying to install xp pro on a amd 500, 125 mb ram, booting from cd it gets through the file installation and then it says its going to restart the computer, but insted of going to the graphical continual of installlation, it starts over again to start instulation from the beginning.
any thoughts???

[phenious]

I recomend taking out the CD after you reboot... then when your back into the swing of things put it back in... try that...

-: phenious :-

You probably have your BIOS set to boot from CD-ROM as well. When it restarts, go into the BIOS and set it to boot from the HDD, that should alleviate it wanting to start the install over again.

[mfg45]

thaks for the reply
i tried that, if i make c first boot, then it looks for the cd and does start up agian. if i take the cd out, i get a boot failure

Do you have the 'Virus Protection' enabled in your BIOS? It sounds like the install can't write to the MBR which will keep it from booting into XP.

[mfg45]

virus check is disabled

If you have access to a 9X bootdisk, use it and do an 'FDISK/MBR', then try the install again.

If that doesn't work, you might need to run the HDD mfr's utility and test the drive. I've got a list here

[mfg45]

well, i feel pretty dumb, but the whole problem is that my hd had a cable select cable and i had the hd on master. I guess i have never had a select cable before. Anyway that was the problem.
Thanks for the help "A machine brakes down in a finite number of ways; but a man can be infinitely stupid" Anon

I've never heard of a "cable select cable". Would you mind explaining?

[mfg45]

well, i know just enough to get myself into trouble. normally the flat cables dont have anything written on them. the cable in the computer i was working on had master tagged on the far connector and slave tagged on the inner connector. I never gave it a thought until my neighbor wanted to borrow a floppy out of one of my junkers, and i looked at the cable going to the hd and saw it had no tags. I remembered the one upstairs did. so heck, i don't know. I always wondered what the cs ment on hd's. maybe someone more qualified ( that would be just about anyone) could enlighten me on the subject.