Hang up of WinXP repair

You can edit the boot.ini file created by the installer and stop the installation. There is a boot.ini editor that can do that from a floppy disk.

http://users.adelphia.net/~abraxas/dl/BootIniEdit.exe

That link will get you a self extracting file that will create the BootIniEdit floppy.

I have found that during the install period the boot.ini file created points to the installation directory named $WIN_NT$.~BT

You should find reference to that in the file if you run that editor. Just delete the line and you may have to replace it with a command line for your system. Post back what it says and I can guide you in that effort. We'll need to put the correct ARC path for wherever your OS is located.

I suspect aborting an installation will leave you with a very ill system that will probably not be bootable. That's OK if you just plan to immediately do another install or repair install using a different key. I think that was your mission but must confess I didn't read all of the thread yet.

 

You may very well have a Hardware problem

 

Charles, I wouldn't mind paying for it, if I knew that it would work, but I'm reluctant to pay for something without knowing what I am buying.
Surferdude2, I was doubtful that this would work, as no other boot floppy did, but I tried anyway. The computer said that it was an invalid disk. I tried Win98 boot and got the same response. I then entered the 6 WinXP floppies, and it took those floppies. I am now at the window that asks if I want to setup XP or go into Recovery Console. Hopefully, the cycling has stopped. My question now is what direction do I go? Should I go into Recovery Console which would give me a prompt? Then I may be able to input "%systemroot%\system32\restore\" as Charles recommended earlier. Before I mess it up again, I thought I'd run it by the experts first. What path should I take?

 

Barry, you have to double click that download and it will ask you to insert a floppy disk in the drive. If you do, it will write several files to it. Then boot with that disk in the drive. It will allow you to edit the boot.ini file.

Anyway, that's probably not going to help you since I firmly believe that you have some sort of hardware problem. Follow the advice in that link I posted earlier. Disconnect everything except the keyboard and mouse. Pull any cards that aren't absolutely required such as NIC's and modems.

 

Well, it looks like I found the answer. At least it has progressed past 34 minutes. Here is where I found it. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/490703.html
I'm not sure exactly what I did that worked, but here is what I disabled in the BIOS:
AGP 8X
ALC-650
OnBoard FDC controller
Show PC Health
NVidia Lan Chip Contgrol
IEEE1394 Chip Control
S-ATA control
I'll also go into system properties -- startup and recovery
and uncheck automatically restart for the future. Now I'll go into restore and bring back an old configuration. Hopefully that will reinstall SP2 and at least most of the updates.
I'll let you know the progress.

 

OK, I'm off and running, but I get this message when I attempt to enter System Restore from Programs - Accessories - System Tools:
System Restore is not able to protect your computer. Please restart your computer, and then run System Restore again.
I did this and got the same message after restarting. The problem came up when I attempted to install SP2, so I don't want to do that until I'm sure that the computer is stable. To do so, I'll need to return to an old configuration. Is this where the safe mode prompting of %systemroot%\system32\restore\ comes in? I won't be able to get back to this till Thursday morning, so I'm open to all suggestions before then. Thanks for the help.
By the way, since he doesn't use his S-ATA Raid, I should probably keep it disabled? Anything else I should keep disabled? He doesn't have a network either, so maybe the LAN chip control is unnecessary.

 

Barry, you have isolated the problem.

GET YOUR (his) SYSTEM COMPLETELY STABLE.

Add back one piece of hardware at a time (reenable those pieces of hardware you have disabled). When you strike problems, disable that hardware again.

Matt

 

Actually, the old configuration works well other than in doing a repair. The other drive works fine. I still see signs of instability in the backup drive. Unless I can find a way to get restore to work and go back to something stable, I'll just clone the operating system partition from the main hdd to the backup. That is an important reason for having separate partitions, so everything doesn't have to be changed when there is an operating system problem. I think the problem may have been that I never installed the S-ATA drivers, as my son wasn't using S-ATA.