Dual booting problems(newbie)

B

boraxkarloff

Member
I'm at witts end. I've been trying to install Win Xp on a Dell Vista computer for 3 days. Vista is on my C drive and XP is on a seperate hard drive E. I slippedstreamed the RAID drivers using nlite. All was fine until I got to the point where XP goes into its first restart to resume installition. After that I'm stuck. I've tried various remedies mentioned on this site. Nothing works. I either get the NTLRD screen or the try repair screen.Any help would be appreciacted. P.S. I tried downloading EasyBCD 2.0 and all I get is an "attachment.php"? file.
 
Hi Borax, welcome to NST.
How did you boot from the XP install disk ?
If you use a function key boot override to select "boot from CD", you'll have problems with the install at the 1st reboot because it will go automatically to the semi-installed HDD OS instead of back to the CD.
You must have CD set to boot before HDD in the BIOS boot sequence, so that the reboots keep returning to the CD. (Don't reply to the "hit any key to boot from CD" message on the reboot(s) though, just the 1st time. Replying to that message takes you back to start from the beginning again.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.I used the f12 ket to select boot from CD. Do I have to start all over again or can I just change the boot sequence?

Addendum:

I changed the boot sequence. No luck. The installation does not continue. It just boots to Vista.
 
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Do you see the "hit any key to boot from CD" message every time you boot (or the system reboots), when a Windows disk is in the tray ?
If you're not seeing the message, then the CD can't be top of the boot sequence which would explain why the reboot goes to the default HDD option.
 
Hit any key to boot from CD shows up every time. When I don't press any key, it just goes to the next boot sequence which is Vista. Installation from the disk doesn't continue.
 
You must press a key to boot from the Vista disc, otherwise it'll just go on to boot from the next available boot device as you can see.
 
It's not a Vista disk Jus, it's XP and he doesn't want to reply because this is the automatic reboot during an install.
Borax, try it again with your Vista disk disconnected temporarily till the XP install completes.
 
It goes into setup whether or not I hit any keys.

Addendum:

Update: I finally got it! I went back to square 1. I made a new disc using nlite. This time I used a DVD,burnt at a lower speed and verified the files. It worked the first time. Obviously, the first disc must have been corrupted.
Thanks Terry for all your suggestions and help.:smile:
 
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Glad your problem's gone away.
Always difficult to diagnose a bad CD when it appears to boot and run OK.
Happy dual-booting.
 
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