Installing old Windows XP on a Dell Inspiron Mini?

How many do you have? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you
do know that the product key associated with that particular CD cannot
be used on more than one PC at any given time. Dell XP reinstallation
CDs are ubiquitous. In your situation, that's what I would try first
(assuming you are able to obtain them). And there is never a need to
enter a product key because of their SLP!

It's not a Dell XP. Just a regular retail CD that requires a key.
--
"The world flatters the elephant and tramples on the ant." --Indian
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: NT
( ) or
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

I just had this problem too. I found that by moving the CDROM to first boot
device that windows would find it during the second install step. I hope this
works for you too. Btw do not hit any key the second time, just let windows
setup run.

"Richard in AZ" wrote:


"Ant" wrote in message ...
| On 9/18/2009 7:56 AM PT, BillW50 typed:
|
| In ,
| Ant typed on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:36:30 -0700:
| On 9/18/2009 7:08 AM PT, BillW50 typed:
|
| Please kindly reread what I said in my original post about
| slipstreamed SP2 and SP3 CDs.
| I read it fine the first time, you said you tried. So what does
| that mean? You tried and failed or what? It that is what is sounds
| like to me. As without SP2/3 correctly slipstreamed into the
| install, it will fail to see files on the CD after the install
| resets the USB ports. As you had stated, the file is really there
| on the CD, is it not?
| Yes, the \i386\asms and its files are there. I already tried
| installing them (slipstreamed SP2 and SP3 CDs) on regular desktop
| PCs without any issues. I wonder if XP is just too old for this
| netbook since installing Windows 7 had no problems?
| When you tried on a regular desktop PC, you didn't use the USB CD
| drive, did you? If not, that would make perfect sense. As non-USB
| drives don't require SP2/3 to install correctly, only USB drives do.
| Thus why I believe your slipstream for whatever reason didn't work.
| That was with the external USB CD/DVD drive. How can I verify if
| slipstream was good or bad?
|
| Okay I am convinced that it is a good slipstream if it worked on the
| desktop with the USB CD/DVD drive.
|
| 1) Some BIOS has a toggle to install an OS. Once the operating system is
| installed, you are supposed to toggle it back. I am not sure what this
| is supposed to do. Prevent MBR modification or lock the USB at 1.1
| speeds or something.
|
| Hmm. Wouldn't that problem occurred much earlier like during XP's text
| installer screens?
|
|
| 2) Could be bad RAM. If you can swap it with some other I would try
| this.
|
| Hmm. Wouldn't Windows 7 had failed or error'ed?
|
|
| 3) Could be a bad drive like David already mentioned.
|
| Could be, but then Windows 7 would had failed too?
|
|
| 4) Don't think the USB CD/DVD drive or disc is bad. But if this drive
| has two USB plugs, try plugging them both in. What make and model is
| this drive anyway? Some can have problems on some netbooks.
|
| Only one on each one external USB DVD drives. One was a Lenovo DVD
| burner drive and other was an old HP DVD burner drive.
|
|
| And no Windows XP should be perfect on this netbook, as long as the
| system/boot drive has enough room.
|
| Odd.
| --
| "Number fourteen. The naughty bits of an ant." --Monty Python's Flying
| Circus
| /\___/\
| / /\ /\ \ Phil/Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
| | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net
| \ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: NT
| ( ) or
| Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.

Does the Dell Mini have a STAT or IDE drive? Do you have the drivers on the USB for SATA?
Can you get to the BIOS and reset the basic from SATA to IDE?

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:44:58 -0700, Ant wrote:


Hello.

I am trying to install Windows XP cleanly onto an used Dell Inspiron
Mini (no idea what model it is; do not have its boxes, manuals, discs,
etc.), but its installation keeps failing at cdrom0\i386\asms. The error
said it cannot find it, but it is there on the CDs (tried slipstreamed
SP2 and SP3, other brands, other burns from other software and drives,
etc.). I have to install from an external CD/DVD drive.

I researched on Google, and it seems like this a common problem (error
message) but none of their suggestions worked. One interesting
suggestion was to press shift-F10 keys when the error occurs so I did
that to bring up a command prompt/cmd.exe. From here, to do registry
edits with regedit but regedit.exe fails to run (not installed yet I
think). I also couldn't find the drive (only found the HDD). It seems
like during the blue text installer, the drive exists but after
rebooting to GUI installer, it forgot the external USB CD/DVD drive?

I cannot make a new partition/drive, to install from another drive on
the same HDD) because the netbook only has 7 GB excluding its 100 MB
system drive (Dell stuff).

I had no problems installing Windows 7 though. Any ideas? Thank you in
advance.

I was told xp may not be able to install on computers that have Vista
or Windows 7 preinstalled. The reason drivers may not be available
for windows xp, including the motherboard. If this is an original
xp computer, I would look up how to restore it from the hidden
partition first. Reason xp is not installing, it may be detecting
the newer version of windows

You could delete the primary and all but the hidden partition and
see if the restore will automatically kick in. You may need to get
xp oem key or vista oem key that was originally installed on the
computer, it should be on the computer.


If that does not work you could try these methods.




Warning this will delete all data.

Unplug computer from any network.

Dont use the slip stream disk.

If you have another computer. Copy that retail at 12 speed or less
to another disk. I always had trouble using Microsoft Cds.

-----you can stop here and try it from this point or go on-------

If you can use a boot floppy or boot cd or boot flash disk with
windows 98se boot fdisk.

(This not step by step, I will assume you know to use these tools)

Fdisk
delete all partitions including the hidden partition (You will not be
able to restore vista if you get rid of the hidden partition)

Exit.

Remove cd disk or flash drive. Insert the copy of the cd to install
windows. If it ask you to copy files to hard drive say yes.


Greg