Gateway LT2016U installing Win XP Home

[Dustin_Broke]

I got a used Gateway LT2016U netbook and it had Ubuntu installed and because of that the recovery software and the OEM OS is gone so I need to use my Windows XP Home CD that I have but the problem is that when I boot up the computer and run the CD it loads the setup files but at the end where it's suppose to show something like press enter to install XP that screen doesn't show and shows a blue screen. I think that the hard drive needs a raid but I don't have one. How can I install XP on this system using a CD? I can't find raid software so I can use it to install XP.

 

[C12Friedman]

Was the copy of XP you are trying to load purchased new or did it come with another machine? There is no RAID configuration needed so that isn't an issue...
You're trying to load this from an external optical drive?

 

[Dustin_Broke]

Yes basicly the CD is a fresh copy of XP like you would buy at a store. I was trying to load setup using a USB external CDROM well it's a DVD burner also. I did setup on bios to load USB CD first then the hard drive so it does boot up and shows the blue screen where it loads setup but after everything loads a problem gets detected and blue screen shows. This happened even on a Sony laptop that I have that has Windows 7 on it. Someone said it might be a raid that I need to install while setup is loading but I don't have any disks for it. I think newer machines have this problem apparently since the 2010 notebook I have has the same problem. But at least with my Sony it has a recovery program so I don't have to worry. But my netbook doesn't have one so I can't install fresh copy of Windows XP Home. I do have the CD key for this Win XP.

 

[C12Friedman]

We need to dispel the RAID idea here, a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configuration requires (at a minimum) two identical hard drives - your machine only has one HDD so RAID cannot be a factor. The most likely factor I can come up with is either driver issues (I don't think that's it though) or hard drive issues. I think I'm going to recommend running SeaTools for DOS (there are instructions on how to load and run the tool), I'm suspecting the faulty/corrupted hard drive as the most likely scenario since it seems to me that what you're doing there should work.

 

[Dustin_Broke]

I really don't think that my HDD is bad since if it was one world work fine expecialy the Sony notebook. I can only think that maybe Sony or Gateway made it so you can't delete or change the OS but when you use Ubuntu it seems like you can goto the partition and delete or so. Also when I tried to install Windows when running Ubuntu it said that there was no partition to use one so I can load Win XP. I wonder if there is a way I can create a partition so I can maybe load Windows XP while running Ubuntu then it can overwrite the Ubuntu and use XP instead.

 

[C12Friedman]

You might check to see if your HDD is configured in BIOS as IDE or AHCI - try changing it to the other, see if anything that way

 

[Dustin_Broke]

It was set to AHCI and I did set it to IDE but still the same error message came. Other options on bios main area Quiet Boot, Network boot, F12 Boot Menu, D2D recovery, SATA Mode. So far everything is enabled except F12 Boot Menu.

 

[C12Friedman]

Have you tried the D2D (Disk to Disk) recovery? Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is to try checking your boot order see where your HDD is in there

 

[Dustin_Broke]

What is Disk to Disk? I don't think I have done that before. How do I do that? Is it hard to do that?

 

[C12Friedman]

After I posted that, I realized you aren't replacing an HDD which is where D2D would be appropriate (for install of new hard drive to replace old or recover OS from partition - which you no longer have) - you might try SATA mode. One other thing that may be a factor before considering drivers is the format of the new HDD, is it set to FAT32 or NTFS? Although NTFS is the preferred format, you may need to use FAT32
I'm also thinking that some Gateway drivers aren't loading that it needs or wants. According to Gateway, "you can download drivers from the Gateway Driver Download Center using your computer serial number search or browse our site for product specific drivers."

 

[Dustin_Broke]

So you are saying I have to get a new hard drive? Basicly the HDD I have now won't work anymore and only Ubuntu works? Since Ubuntu works fine even the latest version but just trying to install Win XP doesn't work. I also tried to install Win 2000 Pro but that did the same thing. I don't know if I tried installing Win 7 or Win 8 if it will do the same though. I know how it installs is different from XP and 2000 Pro.

 

[C12Friedman]

In my mind I keep circling to that conclusion - I'm at a loss since you seemed to have been doing everything right - you may be able to completely clean the hard drive using secure erase and then get a good install... the windows disks you're using, do they say retail or OEM?

 

[Dustin_Broke]

It is for sure retail copy I now that. I used it before when doing a clean installation of Windows XP on desktop towers it basicly have only the basic stuff that comes with Windows XP so only Microsoft stuff comes with the CD. But if I can't install Win XP then I might just have to use Ubuntu for this netbook. I' am still learning how to use it and ask questions at the Ubuntu forums and also I been trying to use Wine so I can run Windows programs. I can say Ubuntu is very different from Windows that I' am use to. I just hope that this OS is capable of doing the same things as Windows.

 

[C12Friedman]

Ubuntu is different and there is a learning curve there but I would think you can get the netbook to do most everything windows would do and possibly more since Ubuntu doesn't hog up resources like windows - I'm still familiarizing myself with different flavors of Linux so I'm not much help there

 

[Dustin_Broke]

About 2 weeks agao I finally found out how to install Win XP and someone told me how on a different forums but basicly it was because it didn't have SP2 on the CD and that SP2 has updates on newer hard drives. I also had to set it to IDE to run or install XP. But there is one problem and that is it runs very slow and also Windows sounds lags badly. It mostly lags when the hard drive is working. Basicly everything was slow except my games. Doom 3 ran much better and WoW was actualy able to run. But the thing is since it as soo slow I had to go back to Ubuntu and I installed the new 13.04. But the thing is if there is a way I can make Win XP run good as Ubuntu the I would prefer going to Windows. But I thought maybe it was because I was using IDE and not AHCI like newer OS uses.

 

[C12Friedman]

Again, I keep circling back to the hard drive - here's where I think the issue lies... not in the storage itself but in the hard drive's cache. Since Linux is quite a bit leaner on resources needed, it's not effecting performance like in windows. Either that or drivers or ram even but I'm leaning more toward HDD. Did you run seatools? Also, are you using 32bit or 64bit Windows versions?

 

[Dustin_Broke]

No I haven't used Seatools yet. I' am using a 32bit since the netbook won't work if you install 64bit since the netbook is a 32bit system. I don't know how to use Seatools on Ubuntu though. If I wanted to use it I might have to reinstall Win XP and then download the Win version of it. It looked kinda complicated to use Seatools on Ubuntu. But I do know that when I play games on Win XP it plays great a lot better than Ubuntu. But just all windows based stuff like browsing o watching downloaded YouTube videos is very laggy and the sound is very choppy.

 

[C12Friedman]

You can use Seatools for DOS http/www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/seatools-dos-master/ which will run from a boot CD - no operating system (other than DOS) involved in the process. There are instructions below the license agreement. Also, at the bottom of this page http/www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-legacy-support-master/ is a version that works from Linux but... it only works on seagate drives so if yours is a different brand, it's not an option. Another DOS based diagnostics tool is Hiren's BootCD http/www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd which has a plethora of tools on it to check virtually everything but it might be a little too much since it contains a lot of advanced tools

 

[Dustin_Broke]

I quite don't understand how to use it since I did make a USB boot up for the Seagate software but when I restart it just asks if I want default and I pressed enter and nothing happens. I don't know how do I boot it up so it shows whatever it's suppose to show. Basicly it just shows as blue screen and saying UNetbootin and the only choice is Default and it says on the bottom that press tap for edit options. But I tried pressing enter and nothing happens. Also I don't know if I' am suppose to edit it since pressing tap just shows some command line and doesn't do anything. I' am totally lost here.

 

[Dustin_Broke]

I don't have a Seagate hard drive btw I have a Hitachi hard drive since that's what it says on the bios on what HDD I have. I can't really find other free software that will fully check the HDD on a Ubuntu system. I might just have to reinstall Win XP then there will be more software that will work.