XP Setup Doesn't Continue After Reboot

I've been trying to track down this problem for a week to no avail. Initially, this was supposed to be a Media Center Edition install but thinking it was the disk at fault, I tried installing XP home and got the same result. The setup goes through the initial process in text mode - partitions and formats the HD and copies the setup files, then says setup will continue after a reboot of the computer. But instead of going into the GUI portion of the install, it boots off the CD once again and repeats the same process. I have tried changing the boot process back to HD 1st after the reboot and that didnt work.

I have the HD set to master on the primary IDE, DVD drive set to master on the secondary IDE. Other than that, theres a pair of 512mb sticks, video and sound cards, and a wireless network card. XP home had been running on this machine over a year w/o problems.

I haven't found much ont his issue anywhere online and what I did find offered no definitive answers. Anyone know whats going on?

 

Is Virus Protection or Boot Area Protection enabled in your BIOS?

 

virus protection is disabled. i couldnt find anything in the BIOS resembling "boot area protection." is there another name this is known as?

 

No, they are the same thing - just different names.

Do you get the prompt: Press any key to boot from CD after running setup for the first time (text mode install)?

 

no, it says something like "updating DMI pool data" and then boots straight into the cd.

 

Try setting BIOS booting to HDD -> CDROM.

 

i get a message that says something like "boot failure, please insert system disk and press enter." and when i put the xp disk in, it goes back to the same text mode setup screens.

 

Something is missing here. When you reinstall Win XP, you should not get this message. Have you tried deleting the partition(s) and creating them again?

 

shot in the dark

does bios support u'r HD fully?

i've seen this sorta issue on big disks in old(er) machines that used software to init the disk. IOW - if the drive was initialized w/ a bios 'shim' to allow big disk access, u almost always have to hit a key sequence to get anything to boot and install proper. EZbios used to do this and it makes OS installs difficult unless u know the key sequence to press at boot time. all that's covered in the shim's docs. best bet here - given u'r real bios DOES support the disk fully - is to NOT use the bios shim software to initialize the disk.

 

skeet6961 the BIOS must be supporting the HDD unless he has changed it.