crashing during windows XP MCE OEM install

[omar777]

so ive been trying to install Windows XP MCE OEM on one of my machines. It starts off with the first cd and then asks for the second cd. The second cd doesnt last very long in the install. Then windows asks to insert the SP2 cd (which by reading review and tips from other users its really the first cd). So I do this. The install seems to be doing fine when with no warning it reboots. The machine boots up again, restarts the windows installation, and goes through the installation from the beginning, asking me to put my name and product key just like it asked me to do earlier. My question is WHY does this happen? Im going in circles and its like i never install windows xp. Anyone had this problem or heard of it? This isnt normal as you can tell.....
  thanks again guys,
                 Omar777

[ctjoyce]

Are you trying to install from scratch, or repair / upgarde?

Cheers
Cameron

[omar777]

Im installing from Scratch. Ive used the HDD manufacturers setup cd to make sure the HDD is clean. and then began the XP install. Its a seagate 300GB HDD and it has to be partitioned to a 137GB until windows can use the rest of the drive ( and see it more than 137GB). And sometimes if i put a different windows install CD than the 1st, it asks for a specific file. Ive tried installing without those files, and it seemed like i got somewhere. But that didnt work out either. So far i havent been able to duplicate it. All i get is the restart after repoping in disk 1. so im at a loss. could it be a bad copy?
                                          - Omar777

[ctjoyce]

First off, you have SP2, and therefore you don't need to partition at 137GB. Secondly, start over, and this time tell XP you want to do a full reformat, not a quick reformat. That should take care of your problem.

Cheers
Cameron

[omar777]

When formatting my drive with the seagate installer, i can select the size of the partition, ive set it at the max size of the drive. but it also gives you options of what kind of type you want. options are: NTFS, FAT32, and FAT16. which one should be used. Also i tried the full reformat, but there are 3 options. one is the quick one, which never worked, then theres one that appears like the full one, and another that says that it doesnt change the partition file. I forget the exact wording on these. maybe there is a way to have no partition, even if it is 300GB, the full size of the disk? this install is sucking more and more. thanks for your help cameron!
                           -Omar777
                 

[justpassingthrough]

I have had similar issues in the past which turned out to be either a stick of memory failing or a driver Windows tried to install that my hardware did not like. Some things to try are to remove all but one stick of memory (at least have 256-512 inthe system) and if it happens again, swap sticks.

If it continues then next I would try shuttling down all non essential devices in the bios such as onboard sound and USB (if no USB devices are needed for boot such as a keyboard or mouse). If Windows installs ok then turn them back on one at a time and see if the system crashes on boot. The drivers can then be installed. I had a system once that did that with a sound blaster card and I figured it out by pulling all the cards that were not needed for Windows install then install them one by one.

Another possiblity is processor heat which can cause the same reboot issue.

Has there been any hardware failures/blue screens lately or anything strange in the recent past with the system prior to doing this new install?

ctjoyce is correct about SP2. As long as SP2 is incorporated on the Windowws Install CD disk as part of the main installation there is no need to partition the drive. That only needs to be done if SP2 is to be installed after Windows is installed.

You want NTFS @ 4k clusters. The quick Windows install NTFS format is OK but the full format does a complete disk check and takes time to complete. Since you are having problems it may not be a bad idea to run the FULL FORMAT with NTFS as ctjoyce suggests.

I know MCE differs from Windows XP and the drivers for certain devices sometimes must be designed for MCE

More often than not, when ever a strange reboot during Windows install happened to me, it was swaping the memory that fixed it. I have even had systems that refused to install on 2-4 sticks and once Windows was installed, they ran fine.

[omar777]

OK, so im on the part of XP setup where it says xp check my HDD and it will install on partition, im guessing i dont want this, and havent been sucessful in ridding the partiton (tho it reads it as Partition1 [FAT32]      286166MB < 286095 free >)

Now my options for installing are as follows:

Format the partition using the NTFS file system
Format the partition using the NTFS file system
convert the partition to NTFS
leave the current file system intact

which one should be used? i think ive used all of them on my first attempts.
And miltestpilot, I havent had any bluescreens or anything, all fans are working, check the temps in BIOS, all norm at 39C. but i didnt think about the cpu overheat shutdown, but thats not the case......
thanks for your help guys.
     

[ctjoyce]

Format the partition with the NTFS File system.

Cheers
Cameron

[justpassingthrough]

As ctjoyce says... format to NTFS


Windows rebooting with 18 minutes left sounds like either the classic memory crash, a Windows driver/component that the hardware does not like, a bad install disk or a CPU failure of some type.


If it were me, making sure the tower is not only off but unplugged from the wall, I would remove all but 1 stick of memory and try the install again. If it crashes, swap the stick in the system with one of the others you pulled out and try again. I would probably try different slots too in order to make sure i was not dealing with a memory slot that has a weak contact.

If it still crashes, I would try reducing the memory speed in the BIOS. example: If it is designed to run at DDR400 (200MHz), reduce it to DDR333 (166MHz) and install again.

If it still crashes, set the memory speed back to normal and then making sure the tower is not only off but unplugged from the wall, I would then remove every card that is not needed to boot and install, such as sound, network, TV, game port, everything but the keyboard, mouse, hard drives, CD drives and video adapter and then go into the BIOS and turn off any onboard devices such as network, sound and USB, then run the inststall again.

If it still crashes then I would suspect either a faulty Windows install disk or something about the MCE version of Windows not liking the video adapter or some other device that is still running.


Years back, if the old T-Bird AMD processors had a defective L2 cache, they would run fine in a system Windows was already installed but crash during a Windows installation. It is possible some type of processor problem is causing it but that would be rare.

If the BIOS allows you to shut down any hyperthreading options I would also try that as a last resort.

[omar777]

FINALLY! I did what you said to cameron and it took a long while, but it finally worked and everything came out without a hitch. Thank you Cameron and Miltestpilot for your quick responses!
        best,
               Omar777

[ctjoyce]

Any time dude, its what we are here for.

Cheers
Cameron

[justpassingthrough]

Thats good news.

WindowsXP limits FAT32 partitions to 32GB during the format process by design but can be increased after Windows is installed. None the less, the maximum file size you can use on a FAT32 partition is 4GB. When you attempt to format a FAT32 partition that is larger than 32 GB during the Windows XP installation process, the format operation fails near the end of the process, and you may receive the following error message: Logical Disk Manager: Volume size too big.

NTFS is safer, more efficient and faster on modern hardware than FAT32. ctjoyce made the suggestion to run the long (full) NTFS format because it runs a full DISK CHECK which looks for bad sectors on the hard drive. If it finds one, it marks the file allocation table so Windows will not place any files on that spot on the disk. It is possible that is why the past installs (on NTFS) you tried were failing and there may be a bad cluster that was causing the crash.

The first time a system is installed is usually best to run the Windows long or full format to be sure there are no disk errors. That same chkdsk /r should also be run once every 6 months to make sure no other errors have cropped up.