XP Won't Load

[sjaguar13]

I get free Microsoft products from school. They don’t have retail version, but the have licenses. I can borrow the master CD, and when I return it, I get a license. I got Windows XP, but when I burned it, I didn’t make it bootable (I don’t know how). It wouldn’t run in DOS, so I installed Windows 98. Also not bootable, so I had to use a Windows 98 startup disk with CD-ROM support. I got everything installed, then I updated the VIA chipset with the 4-in-1 drivers.

The drivers caused XP to get some errors and not load. I tried to repair XP, but again, the CD isn’t bootable nor can it run in DOS. I had to get the startup disk and run 98. I installed the custom version with just the bare minimum. I then installed XP. It asked if I wanted to repair and I said yes. It asked for a password and I didn’t know it, so I canceled. I ran XP again and choose setup instead of repair. It asked if I wanted Setup to repair the current XP. I choose yes and it checked my drive, then restarted. It lets me pick the OS to load, XP (doesn’t work yet), 98, or XP Installation. I continued the installation and it checked the drive again and then copied files and restarted.

Now I can’t get anything to load. I never make it to the screen where it lets me select which OS. I really don’t need that because I never plan on loading 98. I just had to install that first. The XP install file lets me pick upgrade current or full install. I’m going to see if I can figure out how to make XP bootable so I don’t have to use 98 anymore. It would make things easier, but now I can’t load anything.

It locks up after the vocal post messages, “Computer passed power on self test”, and “System now loading from operating system”. Then nothing. The screen just stays there. What should I do, format the hard drive and do it again?

[glc]

Get the master CD again, and use CloneCD to copy it, that will give you a bootable CD if the master is bootable. To comply with the license, destroy the copy you presently have.

[sjaguar13]

I have to wait until tomarrow to get a new copy of it. Will that fix my computer problems?

[sjaguar13]

I copied the CD using CloneCD. I tested it on a couple of computers and it worked, but it didn't work on mine. It said "Invalid System Disk." I said screw it and formated the hard drive. I installed Windows 98 and then started with XP. I choose full install, but when it was copying files, it had problems with a lot of them and skipped them. I was getting nervous, so I decided to go back to Windows 98, then just upgrade that to XP.