Windows Won't Install...

Okay so heres the deal...On my old computer I stole an hd out of it so I need to re-install windows on the old computer which just has a 30 gig maxtor hd in it. So I get it all ready to go, windows setup formats the drive, it goes to create the \WINDOWS root folder and it is unable to do it...so is there any way to get around this, what could I do to remedy the situation, if you have any more questions, let me know. Thanks alot, in advance!

 

Does it say any error message and whats your system specs.

This thread needs to be moved to tech support, please read the stickmy there (we are expanding it at the moment)

 

You say it's an old computer, you sure the drive isn't borked?

 

well I was thinking the same thing, but yet I was using it just a few days prior, and it was running fine, the drive is only about a year old...if you absolutley need the specs I can find em...but the mobo, proc, vid card, ram are about 2 1/2 years old...it has sata on it though...well anyways, no error messages or anthing, and unfortuantley I dont have another system to test it in at the moment...windows setup recognizes it, it just wont write to it...

 

Use the F8 trick, when windows install starts and says "loading files" or "press f2 for ASR" that kinda stuff, tap F8 and select ACPI Uniprocessor.

If that doesn;'t work try the others.

 

If you have it lying around, you could use a linux live cd to check the HD... But if it's only a year old chances are slim that it failed (it's possible tough)

Try what DougEdey said, the ACPI Uniprocessor approach... Maybe you have a bad DSDT or stomething...

 

Okay so heres the deal...i dont ever get the F8 option and F2 requires a floppy disk which i dont have...So heres what I tried. I went into the manual system recovery so I could get a dos prompt. I tried to type the following: C:\>md \WINDOWS. It said the following: access is denied...WHAT! why is that?

 

You're booting from/doing the reformatting etc, from the Windows XP CD... right?

Which of the formatting options did you choose - i.e. quick or full?
If it was just a 'quick' format (which is usually all a pre-formatted HDD requires), it might be worth trying a 'full' format, to see if it makes any difference?

 

Isn't "mkdir" the command you are looking for?

If this all won't work, try zero filling the drive first... That will get rid of some hardneck nastyness that remains on the drive...

 

Well I tried both format types and i did try the mkdir command, still no dice....but what I ended up doing is booting to the cd....then I hit f2 so i had a dos command prompt and i just messed around for a while in the dos prompt, ran through a few things, and I decided to format the hd through dos....so i did....then I restarted my computer booted into the Xp setup and started the setup and it worked just fine, so my best guess was that for some reason, the format options in the GUI setup were functioning properly....but whatever, life is all good now!