Windows 7 - Install XP on a Time PC.....Help!

Asked By billywhizzz2002

21-Sep-07 05:01 AM

I recently was given an old Time PC (1.7Ghz cpu, 80Gb hdd, etc) i thought
this would make a good playground for my 8 yr old to learn on. I bought
another Xp home to put on it. But i am unable to format the HDD & do a fresh
install.
The pc had a T Clone OEM hard drive recovery system on it from Time. Do i
need to get rid of this? if so how? is it hidden?

21-Sep-07 07:07 AM

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

You may have to amend the bios to enable boot from cd

21-Sep-07 07:18 AM

Yes i changed boot sequence in bios to boot from cd first. I can get as far
as the xp cd formating the hdd but then when it restarts to install xp it
says " NTLDR is missing"  also i noticed when hdd vol is shown before
formating it is shown as 74Gb when it is a 80Gb hdd ???? isnt that a little
bit low?

21-Sep-07 02:01 PM

Possibly the missing 6gb is a hidden recovery partition

Problems with winxp new installations are usually caused by
a) marked / dirty cd
b) faulty cd drive
c) slightly iffy memory
d) other hardware probs

What was installed on the pc initially, win?
Was the PC DOA?
Have you tried reinstalling from the recovery partition?
www.memtest.org has a utility for testing memory

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555304/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320397/en-us
a couple of the many KB articles re NTDLR missing

23-Sep-07 01:33 PM

The difference is possibly a hidden recovery partition with the Time OS and
software on it. To get rid of a hidden partition and recover the space, the
drive will have to be repartitioned with either FDISK or some 3rd party
partitioning software (BootIt NG, etc.) before reformatting. That should
remove any residual boot-loader that might be on the drive too.

If you haven't sourced them already you'll need to install chipset drivers
for the motherboard plus XP drivers for all the other hardware in that
computer.

24-Sep-07 04:11 AM

Not at all - the bootable XP CD allows for the removal and re-creation of
partitions within the install routine. No need for any external software or
the use of FDisk....