Cancelling Windows Installation

Recently, I found that my personal profile within Windows XP Home Edition had been corrupted. I was able to create a new profile and transfer my documents without losing too much. I deleted the old profile and everything has been working relatively fine.

After creating the new profile, I wanted to reinstall Windows XP. However, it seems that my hard drive (Maxtor 120GB SATA HD) uses some drivers/controllers that do not comply with the Windows installation and I get that nasty blue screen when Windows attempts to install.

I do not need a new install of Windows XP, I just wanted to do it for housekeeping reasons. However, everything has been working fine since I made the new profile. Since I kept getting the blue screen as Windows installed, I had to cancel the installation process. However, every time I reboot my PC, it gives me a choice (with 5 seconds to make it) whether I want to continue installing or just boot Windows. The default coice is to install and, of course, that leads to the blue screen. It also gives me the option to hit an 'F' key (F10 I htink) to take me to other choices like 'Start Up in Safe Mode' and other boot options (nothing about canceling installation).

Can someone please tell me either how to cancel the installation so I no longer receive this message/choice at startup or how I can get around the blue screen during installation?

 

Hello charon1979,

Bootup with the XP cd and try the Revovery Console - two options to try, first is a repair of the boot.ini file:

Fixmbr - "Repairs the Master Boot Record" of the specified disk.
or Bootcfg, does the same but scans for installations and configures and repairs the Boot.ini

The second is a chkdisk with the r switch.

Regards - Charles

 

Or alternatively you could manually edit the boot.ini file. It's a hidden, system file that lives in the root folder of C:, so you may need to go into My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View tab and select "Show hidden files and folders ", and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files ".

If Windows is installed on the C: drive then your boot.ini should look like this, delete any other lines:

timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

 

Ok, now that you have an example - thanks Super, if you want to try an edit, do it this way, much easier:

Thru the Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery, and click the Edit button in the System Startup section.

Regards - Charles

 

I really appreciate your replaies to my post. I tried changing the boot.ini file, but Windows still wants to reinstall itself. The only difference the change in the boot.ini file made was to give me 30 seconds instead of 5

Again, thanks for the help.

 

Hi charon1979,

The only difference the change in the boot.ini file made was to give me 30 seconds instead of 5
Sorry I didn't notice last night, that is not a good example of a boot.ini for a single OS installation - the timeout entry is for a dual boot config, which I do, probably why I didn't notice.

Use the Recovery Console and try it again.

Regards - Charles

 

SuperSparks- welcome to the BBS!
You posted the boot ini from XP Pro. Isn't the Home one different? I don't have a H.E. to check. Charon is using Home.

Johanna

 

Hi Johanna,

You posted the boot ini from XP Pro

What's the timeout entry for?

Regards - Charles

 

I think the timeout is how long the Splash Screen pauses to give you time to hit delete or F8 or whatever. That has nothing to do with Windows trying to finish the installation. The easiest way to solve the original problem would be to do back ups, and then start the reformat/install again. Charon, I'm with you- I like clean starts. Carrying over problems only gives me headaches.

Johanna

 

Hi Johanna,

The easiest way to solve the original problem would be to do back ups, and then start the reformat/install again

That's the problem, he can't.

Looking at this again, Charon appears to have tried to install on top w/o a reformat. The problem is that if the OS won't install after doing that, that would be a bigger problem.

Going back into the Advanced Recovery section where the boot.ini edit option is, try un-ticking the display time.

Regards - Charles

 

I have a hard time believing that a Maxtor hard drive needs some special drivers that XP can't compensate for long enough to get a clean Windows install. I would check the cd, slap it back in there and redo the install until all was satisfactory. Knowing the error code on the blue screen would probably help.

Johanna

 

The timeout value in the boot.ini is there for dual boot reasons. It the system will pause at the boot menu for 30 seconds (or whatever you set it to) to give you time to select which OS you want to boot to. You don't have to have two OS's installed for this to occur though. If you install the recovery console it'll do the same thing in order to let you choose between the OS or the recovery console. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the windows setup thing is related to the boot.ini. Edit it out and it should be gone. It seems to me we had a post related to this not to long ago and that was the answer.

charon
Are you sure your boot.ini looks like the one SuperSparks posted? If you only have one OS installed and no recovery console etc., you shouldn't get that screen regardless of the timeout thing. Maybe you should copy and paste the contents of your boot.ini in a post here so we can see what it looks like. If all else fails you could just change the timeout to 0 and the boot process should go right on by it. You'd want to also make sure windows is set as the default in the boot.ini if you do this.

 

Here is my boot.ini file:

Timeout=30
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

I copied it all from the original post from SuperSparks above (switching Professional to Home Edition). It sure would be nice if I could just change the timeout to 0 to fix the problem. However, the default choice when I get that splash screen is for an installation of Windows rather than just booting it up. If I change the timeout to 0, wouldn't it just try to install since that is the default? I worries me because then I feel like I'd end up in an endless loop of restart, install attempt, blue screen (error code is something like 0x00000007b - I know the 7b is correct, but I have no idea how many '0's there actually are ).

Johanna - I do have more than one CD and I'll try using a different one in case this all spawned from a damaged disk. Can I start a new install without dealing with the partial install or will this compund the problem?

Again, thanks a ton for all your suggestions and help!

 

Charon,

the default choice when I get that splash screen is for an installation of Windows rather than just booting it up.
Change the defualt in that recovery page, if that works, either change the time down to zero - don't think it'll go below 3 seconds - or un-tick it.

Regards - Charles

 

There's something odd going on here. It should be in the boot.ini.

Microsoft Windows XP Setup Remains in Boot.ini

Try this. Click start>run and type msconfig. Click on the boot.ini tab and see if things are the same as the boot.ini you've posted. If not and setup is there, change the default to windows but leave the timeout set to 30 or change it to 5 if you want but don't remove it completely. Then reboot and see if it boots to windows as the default. If the setup entry shows up in msconfig you should be able to delete it from there. Just to be sure things work properly though, I'd try booting with windows as the default first though.

If everything is the same in msconfig as in the boot.ini you posted, post back.

 

SATA drivers ???

Anyone???

Don't you have to install the SATA drivers early on in the install by hitting F6 and loading them from a floppy?? I don't have a SATA drive, but I could swear I've read this before. Maybe someone more familiar with a SATA drive could shed some light on this.

B

 

Yes you do, also if you are installing Windows on an SCSI drive or a RAID array. And you have to install the drivers from floppy disk, Windows Setup won't accept anything else, leastways not without the hassle of making an unattended install disc.

 

My problems seem to have remedied themselves after I tried starting up the PC with the Windows disk in the drive and re-canceled the setup. You were all a great help so thank you!