Presario 6430NX wont boot into XP Setup

I've got a Persario 6430NX here with a shot hard drive and no orriginal
software. I've installed a hard drive but can't get the computer to
boot up into the win xp setup. It will take windows 98, but not XP.
It copies all the files then freeezes on the screen "Setup is starting
Windows".
Is this some kind of Compaq proprietary problem that takes a utillity
to get around? Or, is this a hardware conflict? The computer did have
XP and a license for it. Has anyone got around this with, if so, got a
trick to share?

"EdLives" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a Persario 6430NX here with a shot hard drive and no orriginal
software. I've installed a hard drive but can't get the computer to
boot up into the win xp setup. It will take windows 98, but not XP.
It copies all the files then freeezes on the screen "Setup is starting
Windows".
Is this some kind of Compaq proprietary problem that takes a utillity
to get around? Or, is this a hardware conflict? The computer did have
XP and a license for it. Has anyone got around this with, if so, got a
trick to share?

Do you have a partition on the hard drive? Windows 98 Boot Disk creates a
RAM Disk so a hard drive is not necessary to get started. Use the Windows
98 Boot Disk to run FDisk on the hard drive to create an active partition
and format it as FAT32. You can change to NTFS during the installation of
Windows XP. Windows XP copies files to the hard drive to get started but
will not copy to a raw disk. You must have a full Windows XP Setup CDROM or
qualifying media to install an upgrade Windows XP on an empty hard drive.


--
Earl F. Parrish

"EdLives" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got a Persario 6430NX here with a shot hard drive and no orriginal
software. I've installed a hard drive but can't get the computer to
boot up into the win xp setup. It will take windows 98, but not XP.
It copies all the files then freeezes on the screen "Setup is starting
Windows".
Is this some kind of Compaq proprietary problem that takes a utillity
to get around? Or, is this a hardware conflict? The computer did have
XP and a license for it. Has anyone got around this with, if so, got a
trick to share?

The BIOS must be set to boot from the CD.

I came across the same problem of the computer freezing or halting
while trying to install Windows XP and received the message "Setup is
starting Windows." You know it's frozen because pressing alt+ctrl+del
doesn't respond. After much searching I found out, at least in my
case, that the Windows installation program was not able to identify
the computer system/BIOS as ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power
Interface), a standard for hardware recognition, even if your
motherboard/BIOS is indeed ACPI. So this is what you can try:

1) Boot from the Windows Installation CD (boot order may be needed to
be changed in BIOS, and you may have to press a key when asked to boot
from CD during startup. I suppose you can also start the installation
program from the harddrive).
2) Press F5 to bring up the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) menu, once
the Windows installation program begins with the blue text screen. It
may ask you to press F6 or F2 but instead press F5 instead!
3) There will be various menu options but select "Advanced
Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" if indeed your BIOS
supports ACPI (most do these days.)
4) Then from here on Windows installation should progress and not
stall. To go past the "Setup is starting Windows" screen it only took
me a few seconds but no more than 1 minute, even though Microsoft says
it may take up to 30minutes.

Here are the useful links from which I found this information.

- TheElderlyGeek.com's "Clean Install Windows XP:"
http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_in...windows_xp.htm

- Microsoft's "HOW TO: Specify a Specific or Third-Party HAL During
Windows Setup:"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/216251/EN-US/

And more Microsoft links:
- "Windows Setup Hangs When 'Setup Is Starting Windows' Screen
Appears"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/217073
- "Windows XP Does Not Respond at 'Setup Is Starting Windows XP'
Message"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310760
- "Troubleshooting Text-Mode Setup Problems on ACPI Computers"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224826/EN-US/

I hope this helps those who've had the same problem as me and took
forever to figure this out.

EdLives wrote:
I've got a Persario 6430NX here with a shot hard drive and no orriginal
software. I've installed a hard drive but can't get the computer to
boot up into the win xp setup. It will take windows 98, but not XP.
It copies all the files then freeezes on the screen "Setup is starting
Windows".
Is this some kind of Compaq proprietary problem that takes a utillity
to get around? Or, is this a hardware conflict? The computer did have
XP and a license for it. Has anyone got around this with, if so, got a
trick to share?