I have been through this installation 3 times today
and I'm now on my fourth attempt. Here's what's happening:
This morning I installed a new motherboard and
processor on one of my existing computers. After a few false starts, I
finally got the computer to boot up, but that's where the trouble began.
I don't know exactly what happened, however, a message appeared during Windows
startup reporting some disk inconsistency on my C: drive. So, it ran
CHKDSK or something similar. I didn't catch all of it because a
distraction drew my attention away for a few moments. I did see, out of
the corner of one eye, a whole slew of messages in white text whiz past
the screen downward so fast that no one could hope to read them. I don't
know what that did, but Windows would not boot up after that. Any
attempt to do so ended with a BSOD.
I thought maybe I could get WinXP Pro Setup
to Repair my existing Windows installation. However, nothing
doing. Evidently whatever happened when all those messages flew down my
screen, had messed my hard drive up so badly that Setup could not detect my
existing Windows installation. Consequently, Setup did not give me the
option to repair an existing Windows installation.
So, I decided to reinstall WinXP Pro from
scratch. That is, I let Setup delete the primary (only) partition on my
C: drive, then run a slow format before installing WindowsXP Pro.
Setup ran without a hitch until it completed the
Finalizing Installation step and then rebooted the computer. When the
initial motherboard boot process finished, the Boot from CD option
appeared. I did not press any key to make it boot from the CD.
Then the following messages appeared in white text on the black
screen:
Windows could not start because the following file is
missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can
attempt to repair this by starting Windows Setup using the original
CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.
I have no idea how to run the Repair Console, so I
didn't even try the only option suggested.
Actually, I THOUGHT something odd must have happened
during my first reinstallation attempt, so I ran Setup again. However,
the same thing happened during the second attempt.
So, I disconnected that hard disk and installed a
brand new hard drive and ran Setup on the new drive only to wind up
encountering the very same error on my third attempt to install WINXP
Pro.
I then began to wonder if the problem was being caused
by some defect in the WinXP Pro Installation CD. It appeared to be ok,
but I polished it a bit anyway, then ran Setup for the fourth time today; this
time with the installation CD mounted in a different CD-ROM
drive.
The fourth time, Setup ran the first 4 steps without a
hitch. It started the Finalizing Installation step and progressed to the
point where it displayed a message stating that it was Removing any temporary
files used, and another message reporting "Setup will completer in
approximately 1 minute." That was a full 10 minutes ago. The 5 tic
mark array of progress bars keep flickering in the lower right corner of the
screen as if WinXP Pro Setup is still doing something and the informational
text display touting all the new features in WinXP Pro keep changing on the
right side of the screen, but it is still hung up with the 1 minute completion
message displayed. It has now been at least 15 minutes since that
message first appeared. As it now stands, WinXP Pro Setup is
interminably hung near the end of my 4th attempt to install WinXP Pro
today.
How can I get WinXP Pro to install on this system
properly?
Rest assured that I shall greatly appreciate your
help.
--
With kindest regards,
