[mzstein]

I was installing win xp O/S on a computer with a formatted HD. It seemed
to go through all the processes OK but when it started to go through " formatting
disk" it stopped at 34% It stayed there for a while but the computer was still
making sounds as if it were working. I left it overnight and when I returned
it was only at 35%. Didn't really know what to do, so I rebooted.

Now when I try to do an install, it stops me right at the start and says soemthing to the
effect of "operating system install not complete" . I have tried several different things, but
can't get past this.

The XP O/S disk is brand new and legit. I tried a win 2000 O/S disk and get the
same message. I removed the hard drive and left it unplugged . I've installed and
reinstalled many O/S and never had this happen. Any advice or do I just buy a
new hard drive and start over.

Thanks

[enj316]

Yeah, dude is sounds like a hard drive problem, but if you have a Windows 98 bootdisk you can follow this to completely wipe the drive and give it another go.

Using Debug to Remove a Non-DOS Partition
The Debug script on the following page, used with the MS-DOS Debug program, deletes non-DOS partitions when you upgrade to a new version of MS-DOS, enabling the entire hard disk to be used by MS-DOS. It does so, however, by clearing out the entire partition table on the hard disk, which results in the deletion of ALL partitions on the hard disk. You need to use this method if your current version of MS-DOS cannot delete non-DOS partitions.
WARNING: Because all data on your hard disk will be destroyed by this procedure, you must back up your hard disk before using this Debug script.
There are two ways to use the following Debug script:
•	Run Debug and type the Debug commands from the center column of Table 1 at the corresponding Debug prompt. (The left column of the table shows the prompts that are displayed by Debug. You do not need to type the comments in the right column.)
-or-
•	Type the command in the center column of Table 1 into a file using a text editor such as MS-DOS Editor and then use input redirection to feed the resulting file into Debug. For example, if you typed the commands into a file called HDPART.SCR, you would clear your partition table by typing the following at the MS-DOS command prompt and then pressing ENTER:
debug < hdpart.scr

	  Table 1:  Debug Script to Erase Hard-Disk Partition Table
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
	  Debug		Enter Debug	   Comments
	  Prompts	  Commands
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
	  -			A 100			 Assemble from CS:0100.

	  nnnn:0100	INT 13			Call interrupt 13.

	  nnnn:0102	press the		 (nnnn in the segment address).
				   ENTER key

	  -			RAX			   Replace AX register.

	  AX 0000

	  :			0301			  Write on sector.

	  -			RBX			   Replace BX register.

	  BX 0000

	  :			0200			  Start from ES:200.

	  -			F 200 L 200 0	 We want to write zeros.

	  -			RCX			   Replace CX register.

	  CX 0000

	  :			0001			  Cylinder, 0, sector 1.

	  -			RDX			   Replace DX register.

	  DX 0000

	  :			0080			  First physical hard disk, head
									 0. (Substitute 0081 for this
									 entry if you are clearing the
									 table on the second physical
									 hard disk, 0082 if you are
									 clearing the third physical
									 hard disk, and so forth).

	  -			P				 Proceed (Debug will display
									 several lines of information).

	  -			Q				 Quit Debug.
   ----------------------------------------------------------------
						

This script completely clears the partition table on your hard disk, preparing the hard disk for repartitioning using the MS-DOS Fdisk program. (When you run Fdisk for the first time after using this procedure and before reinstalling MS-DOS, the message "No partitions defined" should be displayed if the partition deletion procedure was successful.) For more information about using Fdisk, see the Microsoft MS-DOS" User's Guide and Reference" for version 3.2, 3.21, 3.3, 4.0, 4.01, or 5.0, or the Microsoft MS-DOS" User's Guide" for version 6.0 or 6.2. 

Another option is getting a Windows XP PE disk and running chkdsk /f to fix bad sectors on the drive.

-Ian

[Thorian]

Or if you can get it to boot from the CD again you can do a chkdsk -r from the recovery console to repair the drives corrupt sectors.

[mzstein]

One of the big problems I have is that since the O/S install
was interupted, I can't get it to do anything else. I've tried
booting from several different O/S discs and also
tried my drive erase program. It gets stuck at
the "operating system install interrupted"

I like the idea of the win 98 boot disk.
Some of that is above my head, but at this
point I can't really make it any worse.

I'll post the results. Thanks

[NeoGreen]

Is this a new HDD you just installed if so How old is your computer and how much capacity is the HDD. I had a similar issue when I tried to install XP Pro on an old Dell that ran Win 98 with a new 250GB HDD. It kept freezing up. The problem was that the HDD Capacity was to great for the MoBo. If this isn't the issue, you can then run XP again at boot up and erase all on HDD and reformat.

[mzstein]

I actually managed to get around the frozen hard drive.

I was using " Drive Erase Pro " (which has a "boot disc")
to wipe the drive. The key (kinda of a duh moment) is
to go to setup and change to boot order so that it boots
from cd-rom first.

once I did that I was able to format the drive again and than
reload the O/S. The second time it worked and seems to be
running fine, although it took forever to format and forever
again to load the O/S. don't know if this is a RAM issue
( 512 ) or if it normally takes this long. This is the first
raw install I have done of XP.

I appreciate the advice, it got me down the right track.

As I was searching the web for info, I found a site I wanted to
pass along :

http://www.bootcd.us...ilder_intro.php

It is a site that helps you build a windows PE like disc.
I havn't tried it yet, but am planning on doing so.

thanks again, mzstein

[Thorian]

Bart PE is some good stuff I was able to recover some data from a severly hosed drive once that saved the customer lots of hassle.

Her kid got a nasty virus and even safe mode was fubar. Got the files off to a clean drive stuck that drive in another box ran virus scans and rebuilt her HDD and recopied her stuff back to it. ( the hardest I worked for $50 ever)