Solved! Trouble installing Windows XP on gateway netbook

[nkarasch]

http://komku.blogspot.com/2008/11/install-windows-xp-using-usb-flash-disk.htmlI bought a Gateway LT3103 with Windows Vista and I'm having trouble installing XP on it from a USB stick.

11.6" screen
2gb ram
athlon xp 2600+ (think it might have a diff mobile name, not sure)
x1270 graphics

It came with Vista and ran it pretty well, but I assume it would be even better on XP. I followed the instructions at http/komku.blogspot.com/2008/11/install-windows-xp-using-usb-flash-disk.html

the first time you boot to the usb stick you pick the second option "TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug USB-Drive Until After Login", I did this and formatted my main partition and XP appeared to install without a problem. After that phase of the installation windows restarts the PC, according to the instructions that is when you pick the first option "GUI Mode Setup Windows XP, Continue Setup + Start XP"

when I do this it says system could not start because the following file is corupt
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll

any ideas what could cause that and how I can fix it? im a really tech savy guy but I dont know how to fix this. google searches turned up pretty random results. any advice would be appreciated, thanks

 

[nkarasch]

this is from the comments section on that page

At January 21, 2009 12:49 AM, Anonymous said…

'Worked great for me thank you. I did have an issue at first with it saying, hal.dll is missing or corrupt. Stumped me for a while as the dll was there and fine. Twigged after a while, windows had tried to create a duel boot in the boot.ini file which is located at the very root of your windows installation, so normally C:\boot.ini. Go in there and remove the line which isnt "\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"'

any ideas on how to do that? the boot.ini on the memory stick doesnt even have that line in it

 

[nkarasch]

please, i'll take any ideas. a solid piece of hardware is a coaster right now

 

[frozenlead]

...why don't you just use a CD?

Edit: Whoops, nevermind, this is a netbook. I didn't know Gateway made them.

Anyway, you're not looking for the boot.ini on the stick - you're looking for the one on the netbook's hard disk. The only way I would think you could find it is to use a Live linux distribution that you can boot from a flash drive. Or remove the hard disk and use another computer to edit it.

 

[nkarasch]

tyvm for the response. can you recommend a live linux distro that would be easy? i used one a looong time ago but i dont remember the name

 

[frozenlead]

http/www.pendrivelinux.com/

 

[nkarasch]

http/www.pendrivelinux.com/

thanks, ill give that a shot tomorrow.

 

[nkarasch]

K I got that linux distro and figured out how to access my hard drive and boot.ini

tryin to figure out what that guy means by "Go in there and remove the line which isnt "\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"'

it looks like

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\"Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

there are a lot of lines in there that arent the one he specified, anyone understand this?

edit: the more I look at that the more right it looks. I dont see any issues with that hmmm

 

[frozenlead]

The line of code you're searching for would only be there if you had multiple operating systems installed.

I think that the copy of XP you got for the flash disk is coded incorrectly or corrupted. Consider using a newer/different copy.

 

[nkarasch]

The line of code you're searching for would only be there if you had multiple operating systems installed.

I think that the copy of XP you got for the flash disk is coded incorrectly or corrupted. Consider using a newer/different copy.

sounds wierd, i used it before a long time ago. maybe ill just put my windows 7 beta on it for now. thanks a lot for the help

 

[Greg_61]

I just had this problem, and found the solution.

In my case, the problem was caused because I didn't want to delete the other partition on the drive -- the 10-Gig "D" drive that contains all the information to restore the system to factory defaults -- vista and the cheap crappy office software that came with it.

The problem is that when you delete the Vista partition and repartition the empty space, your new XP partition is not partition 1, it's partition 2.

But the boot.ini on my USB drive expected the new windows install to be on partition 1. The boot.ini file starts out like this:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=10
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="2. GUI Mode Setup Windows XP, Continue Setup + Start XP" /FASTDETECT

C:\SETUPLDR.bs="1. TXT Mode Setup Windows XP, Never unplug USB-Drive Until After Logon"

I had to change both occurrences of "partition(1)" to "partition(2)", after which the installation continued without a hitch.