I have a piece of junk computer that has Windows ME on it. Well, I am attempting to wipe everything off of the computer and install Windows XP Professional. So, I really don't know what I'm doing. I just popped in the Windows XP disk and let it do whatever and now it says there are fatal errors. I can just throw away the computer because I was just testing it out anyway, but I've been given another computer that has Windows 98 and I want the XP on it! What do I do to fix both computers?
2007-10-01 02:53:15 · 16 answers · asked by Rosie aka Rosie 6 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
If your computer is capable of booting from a CD-ROM drive and you would rather install using this method, then:
1. Start your computer and then insert the Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Your computer should automatically detect the CD, and a message "Press any key to boot CD" will be displayed for 5 seconds.
3. Press a key and the CD will begin to load files that are needed to begin the installation. This make take a few minutes.
4. When asked if you wish to install Windows XP press Enter.
5. You will be presented with the End User Licensing Agreement. Press F8 to accept and continue or press F3 to cancel the install.
6. Select the partition in which you wish to install Windows XP and press the Enter key. If you wish to delete the current partition or partitions you can do so now. Once you've deleted partitions you will be asked to create a partition. At this point you can choose the size you wish. Most people will elect to create one partition that fills the entire dive. If you decide you would like multiple partitions then create a partition size that will be suitable for XP and your installed apps as well as room for cache files etc. 10GB is s nice size for a full XP install leaving plenty of room for applications etc. After XP is setup and running you can create additional partitions in the free space through XP's Computer Management Console.
7. The next screen asks if you wish to use the NTFS file system. This is the preferred file system, however, if you choose to use FAT32, you will not have all the security and stability features of Windows XP.
8. If you previously had an Operating System installed you will be given a choice of Format options . Select the Format option of your choice. When asked to start the format, press the "F" key. The formatting process may take quite a bit of time.
9. Setup will begin an automated loading of files which will take several minutes.
***Note - If you are clean installing using an XP Upgrade CD you will be asked for a qualifying product at this point. Just pop the CD for your older version of Windows into the drive while the XP setup completes an authenticity check. Following this you will be prompted for the XP CD and setup will continue.
10. After this is complete the computer will restart. Leave the XP CD in the drive but this time DO NOT press any key when the message it "Press any key to boot CD" is displayed. In 5 seconds setup will continue.
11. The Windows XP Setup wizard will lead you through the process of gathering information about you and your computer.
12. If you are connected to the Internet XP will prompt you to "Activate". Do not activate at this time. You will be prompted periodically to activate but you have 30 days to do so. Remember though that at the end of 30 days, if you have still not activated you will no longer be able to access the Desktop. Information on WPA found here Technical Details on Microsoft Product Activation for Windows XP
13. Following the Activation Screen you will be given the opportunity to Register Windows XP. Registration is optional and choosing not to register will not have any negative effect on your system.
14. You will be required to enter your account password to gain access to the Windows XP Desktop.
I hope it helps!
2007-10-01 03:03:05 · answer #1 · answered by Rhonnie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, you need to check that your computer system meets the minimum specifications to run Windows XP. (Take a look at the following page for Microsoft's blurb. I would suggest that Microsoft should update this page as those minimum requirements might run XP, but with limited capabilities ... and not very fast at all.)
You may be getting the error because either the files have not been correctly installed, or they have become corrupt for some reason. This may be due to damaged clusters on the hard drive.
What you might like to try ... assuming that there's nothing on the hard drive that you need to back up first, is booting up with the Windows XP disk in the CD/DVD ROM drive and selecting the 'R' option. Allow it to go through the motions, until you see a DOS prompt. Type 'chkdsk /r' (without the inverted commas) and allow it to do it's bit. Hopefully, this will find damaged clusters and attempt to repair them. You'll then need to reboot with the CD still in the drive and go for a fresh installation.
With the second computer, you'll have to check that it meets the requirements again. Let me tell you, however, that you can only install Windows XP on one of the machines at a time to stay within the law ... unless, of course, you have a volume license key (VLK).
Best of luck.
Whatever you do, don't throw your computers away. If you can't make use of them, there's bound to be someone who can.
2007-10-01 03:08:24 · answer #2 · answered by micksmixxx 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hello, (ANS) As a very experienced computer person my sincere advise would be DON'T DO THIS!!! No.1 Installing windows XP over Vista is a REALLY BAD IDEA!! its a total disaster waiting to happen, please don't go there. No.2 You Must wipe or delete Vista first BEFORE you can install windows XP onto this machine. This means you will need to reformat this disk/s before this can be done. No.3 You MUST have a genuine copy of XP on CD disk & you must have a genuine valid product key before you can install XP on this system. No.4 You cannot compare XP & Vista they are VERY different kinds of operating systems to each other. YES! XP is definitely faster than Vista but Vista has been written from the ground upwards with much tighter system security than XP. Both have advantages & limitations. **I have to confess that XP is still my prefered OS even though I have both. Kind Regards Ivan
2016-04-06 22:24:00 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fatal errors indicate two things.... Either it is a bad XP CD you have..... or, it's not booking the disk.....
We can start the setup a different way....
Login to ME and insert the disk..... open up my computer and browser the disk.... Run the setup.... if it launches and does it's thing then it will ask you to reboot.....
on reboot the setup Will launch..... go through the steps, they are self explanatory..... when you get to the part where it is searching for previous versions, hit the ESC button and it will show you the partitions and your OS on them..... you can delete those and recreate them....
D then L Will do this I believe....
once you have on big block of partition space, create two partitions, one for the OS the other for Data..... This keeps the data safe if something ever happens to the PC. the backup of the data will always survive.....
Then select one and the install will continue.....
That is it really .... It copies the files and reboots....
2007-10-01 03:06:00 · answer #4 · answered by Ti_Cool_Tech 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Throw them both away and buy something with some power. Neither of the PCs you described are powerful enough to run Windows XP once service pack 2 is installed (Mandatory). If it is running ME or 98 then the PC is over 6 years old. If you decide to keep them and make one better PC, the Windows ME computer would do better if you backed it off to Windows 98SE.
Keep in mind Microsoft no longer supports either OS and there are no future updates for either.
2007-10-01 03:02:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the computers are running Windows ME or Windows 98, it is very likely that they do not meet the minimum requirements of Windows XP.
Check the Windows XP box, I think the computers will need at least 256Mb of RAM and a 4Gb Hard Drive or bigger just to get Windows XP even close to working. Even then, it is likely that it will run very slowly.
2007-10-01 02:59:43 · answer #6 · answered by Big Dave 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check the hard drives for errors make sure there is enough ram to run xp make sure the processor is fast enough and the drive big enough.
Windows XP Professional System Requirements...
PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
• 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
• 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*
• Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor
• CD-ROM or DVD drive
• Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
2007-10-01 03:00:16 · answer #7 · answered by The Truth 2.0 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Start by making sure they have a very minimum of 128Mb RAM and preferably 512Mb. Then check the hard drive is a good size 10Gb at least 80 Gb prefered. If the machines are working then download the XP drivers for your modem/ethernet cards to a CD so you will be able to install them and get your other drivers when they come up missing.
2007-10-01 02:59:02 · answer #8 · answered by Mike C 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There might be a hardware conflict with the installation, that is giving you the errors you describe, however, your error description isn't too specific. Before throwing the computer away I would attempt an installation of Ubuntu Linux on it, so at least you have a working machine, and can surf the web, etc. You can download Ubuntu at: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
If you have any more questions feel free to email me at zachary.sandberg@gmail.com
2007-10-01 02:59:35 · answer #9 · answered by zachsandberg 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
a part of the installation process of windows xp allows you to format your hard drive. do so. much better if you would just delete and repartition your hard drives. this way, you are sure that you will be starting almost as fresh as a new hd.
2007-10-01 02:57:50 · answer #10 · answered by zeven77 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋