XP Instal - stalls

I have an ACER laptop with one boot (Drive C:) for normal computing and another boot (Drive D:) which is just for making music with Ableton Live. The OS on drive D: has no frills, internet disabled, never connects to the net or my wireless network. This is to keep my music OS clean and un-adulterated. A few months ago I had some problems with the OS on drive C: and decided to clean instal windows. The laptop came with no disc though has its ACER Product Key label on the back ( OS's are from the same prod key, are legit and pass microsoft's security tool). Without a disc, a freind suggested that as I had a prod key that I could re-instal windows with any legit XP pro cd. I tried this and all was going well when the XP instal informed it would restart to procede with the install. The laptop restarted with the usual 2 x options for windows xp professional (Drive D: and drive C: respectively) and the additonal 'continue with windows xp set up'. When this third option is selected, instead of proceeding to install XP all that appears is a black screen with a blinking cursor. To work around this I have to hit the up/down arrows to select one of my OS's the instant i start the laptop to stop it going into set-up mode. Both OS's are working just fine. The D: has never had any problems and the C: drive has recently been cleaned thanks to some kind help at Security Cadets. Please let me know if you need any more info Many thanks.

Hi there Warmin.. Welcome to What The Tech.

Are you saying that both OSes are now functioning just fine for you, and all you want to do is get rid of the XP Setup function (third option) that is not working?

If so, this sounds like a problem in the boot.ini file.

As I don't know exactly what to tell you to change, and it can be unique per computer, I would like for you to post your boot.ini so I can take a look and maybe make a suggestion.

In order to "find" the boot.ini file you might have to be showing hidden files and folders and system files. So lets do that first:

How to show hidden and system files in Windows XP:

• Open My Computer, then click the Tools menu, then click Folder Options.
• In the Folder Options window, click the View tab.
• In the Advanced Settings window:
  
  • Select Show Hidden Files and Folders.
  • Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.
  • Uncheck Hide protected operating system files.
• Click OK, and close the My Computer window.

Now, please open the boot.ini file in notepad and copy and paste its contents to the forum.

How to copy and paste your boot.ini file:

• Open My Computer, open Local Disk (Usually C:), and find the file named boot.ini.
• Right click boot.ini, choose Open With. In the Open With window, choose Notepad under program and click OK.
• When the boot.ini file opens in notepad, please select all (Ctrl-A), copy (Ctrl-C), and paste (Ctrl-V) it here to the forum.
• Close Notepad and DO NOT save changes if prompted.

DO NOT make any changes to this file at this time as this may prevent your computer from booting at all.

Hi, Yes both OSes on drive C: & D: are fine. I had at one time attempted to re-instal xp onto drive C from the C boot's desktop. All started as per normal….setup said system was restarting…you know the rest. I would just like to stop this 'third' (I suppose its technicaly the same as the C: boot?) instal in its tracks if pos. One boot.ini. for you…. [Boot Loader] Timeout=2 Default=C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT [Operating Systems] C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Setup"

Hi… Lets try to remove that faulty entry in the boot.ini file.

Please open the boot.ini file in notepad again.

Then click file -> save as and type in a new name for the file called "boot.bak" (Make sure you include the quotes around the filename, this prevents notepad from appending .txt to the filename if it wants to)

Now, close notepad. Right click the boot.ini file and click properties. In the boot.ini properties window under the general tab, uncheck "Read Only" if it is selected and click OK.

Open boot.ini in notepad again. Select all and delete. You should now be working with a blank file.

Copy and paste the code below in its entirety back into the notepad window:

Note: The following boot.ini is specific to this user's machine and may not be compatible with other machines. It is intended only for the original posters machine.

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Save the file, effectively overwriting your current boot.ini file.

Caution: Triple check your work and make sure you have copied the above code exactly into notepad and saved it as "boot.ini" A mistake at this point could render your system unbootable and force us to use that CD you have to repair it.

After saving the file, close notepad, right-click the boot.ini file and click properties, re-check the Read Only option under the general tab, click OK, and reboot.

This should remove the faulty option at startup, and cause the installation on your first partition (The second on the list) to boot by default.

Hi Ap, Everything ok, many thanks for the help, will make sure to give some positive feedback on the forum… Truely a great thing to find such open help on the internet, maybe theres hope for mankind yet? You have a great weekend, be safe, warmin.