I bought a new Compaq desktop (SR5152NX) with pre-installed Windows Vista (Hoem premium edition). the hard disk is 250 GB sATA disk. I was trying to install windows XP (SP1) into this computer so I can use the multi-booting function. I read some postings from this forum and followed the suggestions from the postings. (for esample, create a new partition in the same hard disk.) However, I have experienced some issues during the Windows XP (SP1) installation. I hope someone can give me a help to solve my problems.
Question 1). Windows XP did not automatically restart when the screen said XP will automatically re-start in 15 seconds. (I re-started the computer after I waited for 30 minutes.)
Question 2). follow the question 1). After i re-started the computer, XP was working fine and then froze at the point of 34 minutes left to complete the installation. I repeated the several times from beginning and it always froze at the same point. I was wondering whether someone can tell me what happen to my computer. What should I do to fix this problem?

Thank you in advance for your help.

JP

it must be freezing on the installation of a specific file, perhaps it was corrupted. How long did you wait.. sometimes what appears to be frozen in fact is not.

is this what you were following?
http://www.syschat.com/dual-boot-vis...eady-1946.html

__________________

</Dream In Code>
-William. § (marvin_gohan)

Many thanks for your prompt reply. Yes. I did follow the link mentioned in your reply.

I actually waited for more than 1 hour. I also tried a different Windows XP (SP1) disk which I borrowed from my friend to assure that this frozen issue is not from the bad disk. The computer froze at the exactly same point every time I tried. It is weird, but I don't know the root cause.

Are you aware of any incompatibility issues between Windows XP (SP1) and sATA hard disk, especially for the Windows installation?

Regards,

JP

it should be ok... any problems would arise before this point as it would not detect the drive at all. Perhaps try loading the SATA drivers first, when it asks if you would like to load 3rd party drivers. This may solve the issue.

__________________

</Dream In Code>
-William. § (marvin_gohan)

Thank you for your comments. Could you please specify what kind of SATA drivers that I have to install? Additionally, I saw some other people mentioned that it may smooth the Windows XP installation if the onboard LAN is disabled in BIOS (in different forum). Could you please educate me what the function of onboard LAN is in BIOS and what it will happen if this onboard LAN is disabled?

Regards,

JP

LAN: local area network, it simply means you will not be connected to the internet or a local network while installing. This feature can be turned back on once you are finished.

The drivers should have come with your pc, or if you built it yourself, on a motherboard cd.

at what step does the installation freeze, perhaps the files being loaded (what their use is) has to do with the problem.

__________________

</Dream In Code>
-William. § (marvin_gohan)