I cannot install XP it ,hangs while "inspecting hardwar

[econtrerasguzman]

When I try to start the PC it shows the message "NTLDR is missing, press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".
When I try to boot through my Win XP cd it starts to boot and shows the usual message: "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration....." but then it hangs with a black screen. The blue windows-installation screen does not appear. I have tried waiting for several minutes, maybe half an hour, but nothing happenes. i really need to get this fix, please help

[jimmalenko]

check that all jumpers and leads on your motherboard / hard drive / PCI devices / optical drives are all correct and are connected with the right "polarity".

[thecoalman]

There's a lot of info on that if you google, second article is right from microsoft.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2005-22%2CGGLG%3Aen&...+is+missing%22

[Xylob the Destroyer]

disconnect all your "extra" hardware and just leave the bare essentials installed during Windows installation (cd-rom, one hard drive, video card should do it)
once you've gotten Windows and all updates installed, then install the rest of the hardware (extra hard drives, audio card, controller cards, etc.)

[thevoelk]

Boot to the recovery console, and type:

expand [CD drive letter]\i386\ntloader c:\ntldr

After it's finished you should be able to boot and you probably see a message that says:
Inavlaid boot.ini
Booting from C:\%systemrrot% where %systemroot% is your Windows directory.

After you get into Windows, create a file named boot.ini with the following:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

and save it to the root of C:\.

Hope this helps.

[bazooka]

You might have some hardware that is not compatible.

[greymalkin]

i'm gonna echo bazooka here.

I had a machine running win98 w/384mb ram for years and years. When I went to upgrade to XP the install either would not go through or I would get continual lock-ups, blue screens, or "the system has recovered from a serious error" messages.

It turns out XP didn't like one of my memory sticks. 98se never had a problem, but it didn't comply to a strict enough "code" i suppose for XP.

[ofbarea]

The same here. I have an older DPT SmartRAID V Century PM2654U2 SCSI card that works wonderfully in W2K, WME or Lunix, but when installing it in WXP I allways get a blue screen.

[thecoalman]

Well if you look at that article I pointed out above it specificaally mentions upgrading to XP from a previous installtion of Windows and how to fix it.

[ofbarea]

I attempted with a clean XP install with both home and professional editions and no luck. I think this SCSI card is not supported anymore.

[Bjs]

The best installation procedure is :

1: Remove all non essential addon cards .
2: Remove all but 1 memmory chip (bank 0)
3: Enter bios , return to system default .

Install xp should be problem free .

Followed by install of system required drivers .

Followed by addon cards

Video first
Network second
Sound third
Modem forth

And remmember how slots are used on mainboard :

Agp shares with pci next to it (cannot install pci card in shared slot)
Next 2 pci slots (only one can be used)
Nect 2 pci slots (only one can be used)

I have seen people fill pci slots , only to see their pc's crippled ...

[gooberguy]

your not trying to install windows xp x64 edition are you? cuz installing that is a pure bi**h

[redwudz]

I hope you are doing a 'clean install'. With XP it's best to repartition, reformat the boot drive. Upgrades are sometimes problematic. Bad memory modules are a common cause of XP install problems, as mentioned. Usually the 'NTLDR (NT loader) is missing' is because of a corrupt install. NTLDR is what XP starts with. If it's missing, you won't boot to XP. You need to start over.

Try some different memory modules, and as mentioned, disconnect all extra drives and PCI cards. Just install with the basic system. Add the others afterwards.

BTW, I had no problems with installing XP64, no more difficult than XP.

[handyguy]

Some mainboard bioses have a memory of what is supposed to be in the machine & you have to clear it. Try going into the bios & changing it to safe boot or something similar. Also, turn off any bios boot sector protections as they keep your computer from writing a new boot sector.

[anitract]

Good luck on this one. It took a while to find a fix that worked when I had it happen to me. Unfortunately, I did not save the instructions for what worked.

If possible, I'd suggest backing up what you need and then doing a clean install.

[ROF]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314057/EN-US/

While that link discusses cloned drives as the root cause a related cause is an install of a previous version windows being installed on an old partition that wasn't created at the time of OS install.

I see this problem on a regular basis in my shop. Alot of people give their machines to friend to perform a "format" of their drive. Their friend is from the point and click generation and doesn't understand that a simple format doesn't reset a drive partition. Sometimes this "less than tech" friend doesn't even understand partitions.

Lingering problems can occur by not deleting and recreating the partitions at that point. After this, when you format your newly created partitions you end up with a "clean" drive. One symptom is that advanced operating systems (win2K, XP) will both recognize the partition as a "cloned" drive and will fail upon install.

My recommendation is to delete any partitions on your HDD. Recreate your partitions and then install your new operating system as a clean install on this new partition.