Windows won't Install..

[Rock Lobstah]

So, recently, every single file in my HD (Western Digital 80GB IDE133) got corrupted. Don't ask me how! Anyway, I sent it to a friend who checked it out as a second hard drive (I didn't have another one). After some struggling, he got it to boot, and eventually reformatted it.

I've since gotten it back, but had some problems. The first thing I did was go into the BIOS, check everything out, make sure it was normal, etc. Then I rebooted with a Windows XP Home CD in (1st time I've used it). Nothing would happen! So I went back into the BIOS, and changed my DVD-ROM to first boot priority. This time, after I rebooted, it said "Boot from CD:".. except it just stayed there for a bit, then I got an NTLDR error. I posted about it on the Steam Powered User Forums, and after a bit of talking installed 64 bit Ubuntu I had lying around. For some reason, this worked perfectly (I'm using it right now). Except, I still can't get windows to install. Even unplugging my hard drive (so ubuntu won't start up) doesn't help. It just sits there on "Boot from CD:", although I stopped getting the NTLDR error.

I thought maybe it was just a repair disc.. but then why does it have a CD key? Any help would be appreciated, as I'm a real Linux noob!

 

[Robor]

With that NDLDR error it sounds like that CD isn't bootable and your system can't find anything to boot from.

 

[scottws]

Hmmm... Sounds like it could be a bad disc image, maybe a horribly underpowered PSU, or a bad hard drive.

I'd say either a bad disc or a bad disk.

 

[Rock Lobstah]

Well it could be a bad disk, but I have the 480w Neopower, so I doubt that's the problem.

 

[silverpig]

Make sure the XP disk is good first by trying it in a friend's computer. My guess is that it won't work.

So you need a new XP install disk. Seeing as how you have a good key, I'd say either borrow a friend's disk, or maybe download the same version as you have from a bit torrent website. When you burn it, make sure you set it to be a bootable cdrom. Then you'll be all good.

 

[pkme2]

XP Pro doesn't play well with Linux.
We have dual boots with Win 2000 and Linux on our university's systems. The Windows kernel exhibits intolerance with the Linux kernel, so invariably, Windows XP becomes top dog.

 

[xtknight]

Try pressing a key? Does anything work? I don't know...

 

[Nothinman]

XP Pro doesn't play well with Linux.
We have dual boots with Win 2000 and Linux on our university's systems. The Windows kernel exhibits intolerance with the Linux kernel, so invariably, Windows XP becomes top dog.

That's just plain wrong. I'm even typing this on a XP/Linux dualboot notebook, in Linux of course.

 

[scottws]

The only issue I've ever had dual booting has been recently. I have a dual boot with Ubuntu 5.10 and XP Pro. Ubuntu was installed second, so Grub manages the boot, not the Windows boot.ini.

I haven't nailed down the issue, but whenever I boot into Ubuntu and come back, Windows has forgotten my wireless card and I have to go through this painstaking process of trying to get it to reinstall properly over and over again. The reason I haven't nailed it down is that the only times I've been booting into Ubuntu have coincided with me moving the entire PC downstairs next to the router and trying to mess around with ndiswrapper to get the wireless card working in Ubuntu. So I don't know if the problem is related to Linux, messing around with the card configuration in another operating system, the trip downstairs, or simply being without power for that length of time.

But previously I had dual-boots with Fedora Core 2 and 4 and everything was peachy.