Some one please help me... XP givin me hell...

N

OK to start off, this is a really funny problem, or series of problems... it would be better if you try not to laugh...
Ok... i had a perfectly working system with windows xp sp3 and ubuntu installed.... Then i went out and bought a 1Tb hard disk and tried to install windows 7. I couldnt install it, as it gets stuck at "expanding files 0%", and so does vista, THE EXACT SAME ERROR... so its not my disk, or my dvd drive as i can install any linux perfectly...

now here comes the major trouble. to install windows 7, i thought ill format the drive in which the XP's boot records are (XP itself is installed in another drive) and run fixboot and fixmbr after ive installed windows 7 using the recovery console...

I couldnt install windows 7, and my boot record is completely wiped off. I cant repair XP by using the installation disk(only this particular installation, i can repair every other windows xp i have installed after it on other drives) , but i CAN get into the recovery console, or atleast it detects the installation, and it asks for the administrator password, which i never remember setting it....

thats the summary of the problem. i tried manually adding an entry to the boot.ini of another XP i installed later, but then it shows that the hal.dll is corrupt or missing... i tried replacing it but no use... please help!!

I cannot bear the thought of formatting my original xp.... :cry:

A

Please clarify. Do you mean you enter into recovery console and the it says which windows you wish to enter and then it asks you the password? And you haven't set one then simply hit enter as without a password your password is nothing. If this is not your problem then explain more clearly.

Hmm....Firstly I got confused about the situation is...!!

Ok...Try what abhinav_sinha said, if you haven't provided any password at the time of installation then it's blank. If this doesn't work too you can try recovering GRUB and update your GRUB to find XP and then you can easily make XP as 1st Boot choise editing grub.

^^ Yes. Choose the correct installation from the identified installations and just press enter when it asks for a password. When you get to recovery console type >fixboot.

You could try booting off your WinXP Installation disk, and try repairing your installation.

Also, if you have ERD Commander, boot from it and run System File Repair

I was in a lot similar situation a month ago. I had a perfectly working system with 160GB HDD as primary and another 500GB HDD as extended. I purchased a 1TB HDD and decided to kick out the 160GB HDD which had WinXP and Win7 installed already.
When I attached both .5 and 1TB HDDs and tried installing Win7, it didn't allow me for some stupid reasons. After multiple failed trials, I finally removed my 500GB HDD and successfully installed Windows on 1TB

Later I attached 500GB HDD too and had to "import foreign disk" from Disk Management (do not chose convert to basic disc, it will erase all your data) under Win7. Everything is fine now.
Try this method

N

i have resolved all problems with my xp... now the only problem is that i cannot install windows 7 or vista... it gets stuck at expanding files 0% and gives me an error message...

as it gets stuck at "expanding files 0%",

maybe you have to wait for some time. In my case it goes from directly from 0% to 100% after some time

cute.bandar said:
maybe you have to wait for some time. In my case it goes from directly from 0% to 100% after some time

+1 to that. I bought a 500 GB hard disk 2 weeks back, and it took me 5 minutes to go to 0% to 1%, then began to speed up to the normal install speed.

^^ +2 to that...

Have a little patience...it surely will start working. I think this is very very common with Win7 installation (I mean expanding of files takes a lot of time), maybe because of its huge size!

N

guys i think i need to clarify....

stuck at 0% implying S.T.U.C.K. i left it on for a half an hour and when i came back it gave me an error. this is true for both my 7 and vista installations. no other oses gives me trouble.

copying files goes from 0-100% directly in just half a second. then its stuck at expanding files.