XP Pro Not Installing - Just Loopping Over & Over

[roystreet]

Howdy...I am trying to install Win XP Pro on a test machine here, but I keep running into a problem I never have run into before & maybe someone can throw some advice this way or an explanation? I boot the machine with the CD in it & it goes through the process of installing windows first by formatting, then copying over the files - It works great. This is an attended installation, so I'm there for most of the process. Once windows is ready to reboot & it says to remove any media...I didn't pull the CD out. I didn't think it was a big deal, whenever I've installed win before, I don't ever remember having to remove the CD, only floppy if there was a floppy in it. It reboots & begins the process the installation process all over again. I've tried removing the CD out & then rebooting, but it requires I put the CD back. Unfotunately the second time I tried performing the install I wasn't there in the room when it was going to reboot, so I didn't get to try to remove the CD, so of course it start to install once again. Of course it doesn't go very far because it waits for me to tell it to install.

Any ideas of how to make this work, is it as simple as making sure I'm there when it's ready to reboot & take the CD out?? I've never seen it do this though...Any thoughts as to why?

I appreciate your help in advance!

---roystreet

[gosh]

XP has bootfix.bin that shows you that "press any key" message. If you dont press any key setupldr.bin will pass off control to your hard drive. To me this sounds like your BIOS doesnt have a hard drive configured as a boot device or the hard drive hasn't been made bootable by fixboot c:, or sys c:

XP Setup will sys the drive for you, so if it's failing, it's something in the MBR such as a MBR virus or a 3rd party app like Drive overlay.

-gosh

[roystreet]

I made sure the BIOS was set to boot from the HD after the CD drive. But I decided to go a step further & change it so that it would boot from HD first. It still asked for the CD. It's practically a brand new HD.

[Ponch]

If it's not a standard MS disc, the CD might skip the "press any key" and you may get in such a loop. Once booted from CD, the partition is made and files are copied, then the PC reboot. At that stage, you should NOT boot from CD but the CD should still be available to the setup. Normally, it shouldn't reboot after so either you need to have the bios boot from CD once then change it or you wait for the files to be copied (you don't need to format anymore before that) and pull the CD off , wait for the PC to boot and reinsert the CD.

What if you just boot without cd and reinsert it after it asks ?

[roystreet]

This is the original Win XP Pro CD. When I've tried rebooting & waited it for it to ask...I insert the CD & press a key. It begins the process over again, asking me if I want to install windows, which partition, etc. I've looked to see if there was some type of option that would "Appear" allowing me to continue previous installation process - I guess I hoping to be lucky or something?

Thanks...