Windows X.P will not start

[grandma at 40]

Hi hope some one can help! Had a spare hard disk drive gave it to my mother to install on her computer gave instructions on how to format and install windows X.P. Told her if it came up with error such as hard disk failure to enter del and set bios to C.Cdrom or C only to boot from c.d. Unfortunately that error didn't come up it comes up with windows unable to start successfully please choose from one of the following options and press enter.  None of these options work. Just keeps repeating the same screen. Won't boot up from C.D nor floppy disk. I think it has 128megs ram.The hard disk worked fine in our computer.

[GX1_Man]

Is it the only disk in that machine? Was it the only disk in yours when you had it? It needs to be jumpered correctly. What kind of machine did it go into?

[Sid]

Hi hope some one can help! Had a spare hard disk drive gave it to my mother to install on her computer gave instructions on how to format and install windows X.P. Told her if it came up with error such as hard disk failure to enter del and set bios to C.Cdrom or C only to boot from c.d. Unfortunately that error didn't come up it comes up with windows unable to start successfully please choose from one of the following options and press enter.  None of these options work. Just keeps repeating the same screen. Won't boot up from C.D nor floppy disk. I think it has 128megs ram.The hard disk worked fine in our computer.

Is it the only disk in that machine? Was it the only disk in yours when you had it? It needs to be jumpered correctly. What kind of machine did it go into?

EDITED:
If it was a jumper problem it would stop and it should say something along the lines of "slave, master, jumpers" somewhere in the error message.

I think we need some more info.  Like what does it say, how does it stop, has the BIOS been touched etc etc.

[patio]

If it was a jumper problem it would stop at the POST, just after the chance to enter BIOS comes up.  And it should say something along the lines of "slave, master, jumpers" somewhere in the error message.

Which BIOS does this ? ?

[GX1_Man]

Indeed. Bad advice, Sid. 

[Sid]

If it was a jumper problem it would stop say something along the lines of "slave, master, jumpers" somewhere in the error message.

Which BIOS does this ? ?

Maybe I'm wrong as to what or where it stops, but mine did, when I had two drives jumpered as masters on one IDE chain.

[grandma at 40]

Is it the only disk in that machine? Was it the only disk in yours when you had it? It needs to be jumpered correctly. What kind of machine did it go into?

  Thanks for getting back to me. It was the only hard drive connected at the time. and It was the only hard drive in our computer as well. Unfortunately i wouldn't have a clue as to what type of computer it is. Sorry

[patio]

Hi hope some one can help! Had a spare hard disk drive gave it to my mother to install on her computer gave instructions on how to format and install windows X.P. Told her if it came up with error such as hard disk failure to enter del and set bios to C.Cdrom or C only to boot from c.d. Unfortunately that error didn't come up it comes up with windows unable to start successfully please choose from one of the following options and press enter.  None of these options work. Just keeps repeating the same screen. Won't boot up from C.D nor floppy disk. I think it has 128megs ram.The hard disk worked fine in our computer.

What you need to understand is that since Win 2000 it is hard for a drive from one machine to be installed into another machine and expect it to boot up properly...this has to do with driver issues, copyright protection and a slew of other variables...

If you post back with more info on exactly what you want to accomplish with this new drive and what her current setup is i'm sure assistance will be right around the corner.

[grandma at 40]

Hi hope some one can help! Had a spare hard disk drive gave it to my mother to install on her computer gave instructions on how to format and install windows X.P. Told her if it came up with error such as hard disk failure to enter del and set bios to C.Cdrom or C only to boot from c.d. Unfortunately that error didn't come up it comes up with windows unable to start successfully please choose from one of the following options and press enter.  None of these options work. Just keeps repeating the same screen. Won't boot up from C.D nor floppy disk. I think it has 128megs ram.The hard disk worked fine in our computer.

What you need to understand is that since Win 2000 it is hard for a drive from one machine to be installed into another machine and expect it to boot up properly...this has to do with driver issues, copyright protection and a slew of other variables...

If you post back with more info on exactly what you want to accomplish with this new drive and what her current setup is i'm sure assistance will be right around the corner.

She just wanted a bigger hard drive the one she was using was only 4gig. This one is 20gig I have done this many a time and have'nt had this problem before. I think her computer has 128megs ram 233 processor and thats about all i know. We were using that hard drive on our computer and we got another one so we didn't need that hard drive so I thought she could have it for hers. In fact I got one just the other day put into my sons computer it came up with systems disk error so I set bios to c.cdrom  put in the X.P C.D and it booted up no worries at all

[patio]

If XP is to be set up on that drive it should be wiped clean early in the installation process and it needs to be in her machine...

128M of RAM will slow it down though.

[GX1_Man]

Hi hope some one can help! Had a spare hard disk drive gave it to my mother to install on her computer gave instructions on how to format and install windows X.P.

If that XP is activated on another computer, one or both of these will be unusable in 30 days. The license clearly states one copy for each machine. With a PII-233 and 128 RAM, XP is not a wise solution for her difficulties.

[grandma at 40]

If XP is to be set up on that drive it should be wiped clean early in the installation process and it needs to be in her machine...

128M of RAM will slow it down though.

Thanks for that.  Thats what we were going to do but I only know how to format using the X.P C.D and we can't get the C.D to boot up it just won't start at all. The screen says to choose one of the following options safe mode, command prompt ,last known good configuration there is more but I can't remember what they are, but it won't start using any of these options. I think it has something to do with the settings but i'm not confident enough to touch that  wouldn't even know where to start.

[grandma at 40]

Hi hope some one can help! Had a spare hard disk drive gave it to my mother to install on her computer gave instructions on how to format and install windows X.P.

If that XP is activated on another computer, one or both of these will be unusable in 30 days. The license clearly states one copy for each machine. With a PII-233 and 128 RAM, XP is not a wise solution for her difficulties.

What do you suggest:?

[GX1_Man]

Get an operating system that it will tolerate. Win98SE, ME (uggh) or Windows 2000, unless you want to invest a lot of money in upgrading.

[ale52]

"I think her computer has 128megs ram 233 processor..."

A 233 processor.  That's very old.  Does the BIOS see the entire hard drive size?

Alan <><