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Compaq had win98 install XPpro

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by home8d

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I have an older compaq that I tried to install XPpro on. I wanted to do a clean install and not and upgrade. I guess I made a big mistake. It was moving along fine when it said that it needed to reboot and did the count down. At this point it tried to reboot and wasn't able to then asked if I wanted to boot off of the cd so I proceeded with this. Then the whole process starts over again and again. It is stuck in some kind of loop. It has enough ram and disk space especially since the HD was formatted using fat32. Any help would be appreciated. I really hate to just piece it out it was supposed to be for my daughter.

6 replies

by liame

Try popping the CD out when it tries to reboot. It might carry on with the install and ask for the disk back when it needs it.

Or...

When you got as far as formatting the drive did you notice if there was more than one partition on the HDD? Compaq often used a very small disk partition for system stuff - effectively an extended bios. If you deleted this partition or formatted it inadvertently you'll need to recreate it by running compaq's utility.

If this is the case the disk to do this came with the PC originally - if you dont have it go to compaq's (very helpful) site, enter your model number and download a new copy.

by sgt_shultz

post your exact compaq model number and we can help better. you probably need to flash the bios (in Compaq they call it ROMpaq). it is not hard just cumbersome. you download their utility to make a boot disk then boot with it and it backsup and flashed the rom. but first i would read on the compaq website to see if it needed any mboard driver updates and about any issues with upgrading to xp

by sgt_shultz

Force in a system HAL
To prevent Windows XP from automatically determining the system HAL during the upgrade or the installation of Windows XP, you can manually force in a system HAL. To force in a system Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) during an upgrade or installation of Windows XP, follow these steps: 1. During the Text-mode phase of the Setup program, when you receive the following message across the bottom of the screen, press F5:
Press F6 if you have to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver.
Note If you press F7, the Standard PC HAL loads and the ACPI compliance check is bypassed.
2. You receive the following list of computer types. A brief description of each HAL is included here: ? ACPI Multiprocessor PC
Applies to a multiple-processor ACPI computer.
? ACPI Uniprocessor PC
Applies to an ACPI multiple-processor board but with a single processor installed.
? Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC
Applies to a single processor motherboard with single processor.
? Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible
Applies to a Compaq SystemPro computer.
? MPS Uniprocessor PC
Applies to non-ACPI computers dual processor motherboard with a single processor installed.
? MPS Multiprocessor PC
Applies to non-ACPI computers with a dual processor running.
? Standard PC
Applies to any Standard PC, non-ACPI, or non-MPS. The CPU may be a 386, a 486, a Pentium, a Pentium II, or a Pentium III.
? Standard PC with C-Step i486
? Other

Note The screen displays only two computer types at a time. To scroll up or down to view the complete list, use the arrow keys.
For additional information about related topics, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

by trockii

The first thing you want to do is check to make sure the computer meets all the recommendations for XP Pro. Some older computers just can't handle XP Pro. Then reinstall the OS like normal. When it gives you the countdown eject the XP Pro cd. It will boot to the HDD now.

ps you will want to format the HD using NTFS.

by aceskaraoke

When upgrading older PC's, always check that they meet or exceed minimum requirements. If it doesn't meet the requirements, you may be out of luck, or have a machine that runs so slow as to be nearly useless for your daughter.

I would first reformat the hard drive, and if space allows create at least two partitions. Having one of the partitions formatted in FAT 16 or 32 will allow for installation of some of your legacy software and will allow you to save non confidential files where they can be read by older Windows and DOS. This also allows you to put your files into the non OS partition, so that if you experience an OS disaster you can still access your files. There's no substitute for regular backups, but this can be really handy and a lot less time consuming.

If your system is up to running XP, and you've reformatted the HD, it should be as easy as rebooting with the XP installation disk in the drive and following the prompts.

XP will work better if you are using the NTFS file system, plus you'll have better file security and greater HD efficiency with much smaller cluster allocations.

Once you get XP running you can convert to NTFS by accessing Administrative Tools-> Computer Management-> Disk Management. Click on the partition you want to convert, check it's properties, and xp should guide you through the rest.

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