I bought a computer cheap at a garage sale. It's a Dell Optiplex GX150. 256 memory and 9.5 gig drive.
I bought a new XP Home Edition w/SP 2 program (A full version not an upgrade) and started to install it. All goes fine until it runs through the fomat process. It reaches a 100% format then it goes to a screen that says:
"Windows XP Home Edition Setup
Make sure the drive is switched on and properly connected to the computer. If the disk is a SCSI disk, make sure your SCSI devices are properly terminated. Consult your computer manual or SCSI adapter documentation for more information.
You must select a different partition fro Windows XP.
To continue, press ENTER"
If I press "ENTER" I go back to the page for formatting and it does the same thing all over again.
Any suggestions?
Glenn
PS: If this puter has an "SCSI disk" or "devices", I don't know what that is and/or how to "properly terminate".
* This post was
edited 05/06/08 02:23pm by Glenn And Kitty *
Glenn And Kitty
Best off to get a copy of Win98 boot with the format command on it. Boot to dos Run fdisk and delete all partitions on the hard drive. Then start the XP install.
BTC
or, press "D" then "L" then enter and delete the partition right there,
actually it sounds like you have a bad hard drive, and it can't get the drive to copy the files from the cd. it sounds like you are already past that partition screen.
i have never seen that message. sounds like the hd is bad, prolly why its for sale
Is there already an OS on the computer? Will it boot to that? If so, the problem is not the hard drive. Try deleting the partition as LittleBill suggested. If it won't boot from the hard drive, try booting off a removable device (CD, thumb, etc). If you can't run a dir command on the fixed drive, you can replace it fairly cheap. Don't forget the obvious and look at the connections. The seller may have been playing with it and forgot to reconnect a data or power cable.
Original poster here. After several days of working with this computer, I found that I had a bad hard drive. I located another hard drive out of another computer. It had an XP Professional OS on the drive and at first when I tried to install XP Home it wanted to partition the drive.
I didn't want a partitioned drive so I let the program run and formatted the drive from my XP Home disk.
I then stopped the process and started the reinstall again. At the partition phase I did a "D" then "L" and deleted all the partitions. I then continued and installed the XP Home OS.
All is fine except when the computer starts up a black screen comes up and it says: Please select the operating system you want to start:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Both options are the same. If I choose the first one Windows starts up and works fine however If I choose the second one I get and error window:
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk hardware"
Questions:
1 - How can I make the "choices" go away and have it just start from the first option.
2 - Since I have "choices" does that mean my hard drive is still partitioned?
3 - Should I start over and reinstall again?
4 - Is there a way to format the entire hard drive and start from a totally clean hard drive. If so please be specific on the instructions.
Glenn, sounds like you created a dual-boot between two copies of WIN XP. If the second WIN XP is not booting, its likely a corrupt install. Yes, you can get rid of the startup dual boot menu by editing the boot.ini file. Not difficult, but if you don't feel comfortable doing so, this works just as well.
First, is the "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" choice that boots the first listed? If so, its likely the default OS that boots if you make no choice. Basically, the default time out is probably set for 30 sec. You can change this wait time to a lower number, say 1 or even 0.
Go to Control Panel>System>Advanced.
Click the "Settings" tab under "Startup and Recovery"
On the top check box, set the "Time to display list of operating systems:" to 5 sec., then click "OK".
Restart your computer, and do "not" select either "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" choices. WIN XP should begin loading automatically after 5 sec. If everything boots fine, then you know the default boot OS is the WIN XP that works. You can then go back into "Startup and Recovery" and set the time out to 1 sec. or even 0(unchecked) if you prefer.
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