2k Pro to XP Pro Install Failure Problem

I need to start the process by removing any and all portions of a what appears to be a failed XP upgrade. When I boot now after the upgrade I get a message asking what OS to boot. Win 2K, XP AND XP Setup...eventhought the setup disc is not in the machine. So I think that removing ALL portions for the failed setup is my starting point. I cannot boot from XP or the Setup disc. XP stalls at the first splash screen and the Setup stalls at the "Windows is Starting Up" screen with the bars accross the bottom of the screen. I think removing the traces of the failed XP upgrade is the best next step.

I have been unable to locate a way to remove XP and leave 2K...can anyone suggest a way to accomplish this?

It seems as though XP was installed on the same drive and partition as 2K. After I remove the failed XP I want to try to reinstall it. When installing this last time, the install looked like it was working fine until it came to reboot, then I got to the choose OS screen and could go nowhere but back to 2K from there.

Thanks in advance.

Are you trying to dual boot XP with 2K or are you wanting to get rid of 2K completely?

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Originally Posted by rik

Are you trying to dual boot XP with 2K or are you wanting to get rid of 2K completely?

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Trying to get rid of 2K completely...HOWEVER I don't have a way to back up my drives and do clean install.

Thanks

What are you installing from?

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Originally Posted by rik

What are you installing from?

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The XP PRO w/ SP2 cd. However now it smmes as though XP is trying to install I get to the point where you name the computer and put in the cd key...right after that it locks up the install. Then when I reboot I get 2 OS choices again; 2K Pro and XP Pro. If I select XP it says that "setup is restarting" and goes back into setup before the point where it locked up...again I put in the cd key and it locks up. I can boot fine from 2K. But there seems to be some part of XP loaded, I have tried to install other software and that seems to think the machine is now an XP...sorta strange.

Again I think I might need a clean install...but with 240GB of stuff on 2 drives where would go to back that up? If I install a really big HD will 2K even recognize it?

Thanks for the help.

Under NTFS, the maximum size of a partition (volume) is in fact 2 to the 64th power. This is equal to 16 binary exabytes, or 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes. Which is 18 billion gigabytes...but not only is the OS suspect or a factor in HD size your BIOS must be able to see and in todays trends I don't forsee you having a board that will not see a very large hard drive. *Now with that said I have not kept up much with 2000 but there may be a patch or something out there that might need to be applied to anything over 132 gig's like with WinXP.As for your install I am still looking into that one however I think the validation.pcl file is hanging when and after you enter your key. *I will post back when I know.

Personally, I would suggest if you want to get rid of 2K completely just boot to the XP cd, choose New install, delete the partitions, recreate 1 partition and perform a full NTFS format. Then install XP there. Should work fine.

:whs: :D Let the XP do the work,or run a win95 or w98 boot disk and run fdisk to get rid of what is there.Then install fresh XP.:D

Is it possible to boot from that another HD, delete all the windows files on the HD with the corrupted windows installation and try to fix the MBR(s) and then create a news partition on one of the drives for a fresh win xp install? (you said the 240GB stuff was on 2 drives).

Might it be possible to use a serial cable/dcc to transfer your files to another computer (or would you need an OS on both computers to transfer stuff)?