help, it doesnt work!

[kellybrf]

so i built a system (see the specs below) and it doesnt want to start. the hd was from my old computer, and i did a clean install of win xp pro just before i switched them out. it came up w/that blue screen that says "if this is the first time youve seen this..." that time it was a kernel problem. i tried to do another clean install, but it wont go all the way through the first setup screen. i can get through the formatting (tried both ntfs and fat32) but when it goes into the file copying it restarts. it keeps giving the error message NTLDR is missing, and says hit ctl+alt+del, which just gives the same thing. ive tried many times.
so i tried w2k pro. this time it would get through the second startup screen (set time/date, etc), but on the last step (file cleanup) it goes to the blue screen and says memory dump. it doesnt always get that far, but ive tried many times with this as well. help, please?

oh yeah, the floppy light never went off, but i unplugged it and it didnt seem to change the problem. ive also tried it w/a different hd w/win2k already installed to no avail. thanks a million!

[seqiro]

1) installing windows onto a hard drive BEFORE moving it into a new system is almost always going to be a waste of your time unless you are moving the drive into a mostly identical system. So your drives with existing WinXP or Win2K installations are not likely to boot when moved into your new system.

2) Which controller is your hard drive connected to? If you have it connected to the Highpoint RAID controller, try moving it to the primary controller.

3) If it's not that or if that doesn't work, try booting into the recovery console and typing FIXBOOT and FIXMBR.

See if that helps, if not we'll try something more drastic. :)

[kellybrf]

ok, it works now. dont know what happened, but i went through the xp install again and it turned out fine. i already had my copy of xp running on another computer, so i had to call microsoft to get a different lisence # and they told me i have to uninstall it on the first. is this true, can they detect if i dont, or do they just want me to? thanks again!

[seqiro]

They just want you to. :)

Enjoy your new computer!

[kellybrf]

so it really doesnt work. almost every time i install a program (ati drivers, norton, win update, etc.) it crashes on me. if i go through it again it usually finishes. i went back to win2k (it took a few tries to install), but got the same problems. i ran the compatibility check and it says everything is compatable w/xp. i spent two hours on the phone w/microsoft and they did nothing (go figure). when i initially installed xp on the hd in the old computer there were no problems.
errors have ranged from memory dump, kernel problems, cpu not configured right, cannot boot and eventually it wouldnt even boot from the cds. thanks guys.

[sleepminded]

doncha just love Microsoft?