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Cheapo Nogo with XP

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by stepmonster 1 view

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I bought this really cheap wintergreen desktop pc loaded with linspire. Now, no matter what I do, even with a full, new, ntfs, xp pro install. It won't boot to xp. It will allow me to reinstall linspire and boot fine.. but not with xp. Failure to load os! Checked the bios, changed harddrives, tried without cd rom, nothing helps. Any suggestions out there? THe motherboard book says it's created for xp... Frustrated.
Cindy

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by mikeblane

start down the path and recheck all your information:
- is the hardware on the MS Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)?
- does this hardware meet the minimum software requirements?
- is the BIOS set for a Plug-n-Play OS?
- does the hard drive have a compatibility program (hard disk manager) to help with older bioses (WD and Maxtor supply these as separate floppies in case you need them)? If so, there may be a specific setting that has to be set for NT-compatible OSes. Wiping out all partitions with FDISK and then using the FDISK /MBR to recreate the master boot record should remove the hard disk manager program, if it exists. Only do this if you want a clean HD and if you know the BIOS is new enough to translate all of the disk's cylinders and sectors without the help of the hard disk manager program.

It may sound silly, especially given the motherboard advertises that it was created for XP, but Microsoft's HCL has the final say.

Hope this helps.

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