Installing XP over Linux

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:18:05 +0100, Kev wrote:

I am trying to install Windows XP on a Dell laptop that currently has
Linux Ubuntu installed. After booting up with the Windows CD in the
drive, it loads various Windows files, but eventually stops on a blue
screen message advising me to run CHKDSK, but won't respond after that.
I suspect that Windows is seeing the Linux partitions as disk
corruption, but how can I get past this?

Are you using an Install XP CD or an Upgrade one or, maybe, a Restore?
I'm guess that it's one of the latter two, since it seems the disk is
looking for Windows on the hard drive or, possibly, a restore partition.
Neither of which is there, and it thinks the hard drive is corrupted.

If you don't have a full Install Windows CD, you're not going to be able
to install Windows.

Stef

Are you using an Install XP CD or an Upgrade one or, maybe, a Restore?
I'm guess that it's one of the latter two, since it seems the disk is
looking for Windows on the hard drive or, possibly, a restore partition.
Neither of which is there, and it thinks the hard drive is corrupted.

If you don't have a full Install Windows CD, you're not going to be able
to install Windows.

I was using a full installation Windows XP Pro CD.

By the way, I also have an installation CD for Windows 2003 Server. I tried
booting with this disk too and it produced the same result.

On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:35:11 +0100, Kev wrote:

Are you using an Install XP CD or an Upgrade one or, maybe, a Restore?
I'm guess that it's one of the latter two, since it seems the disk is
looking for Windows on the hard drive or, possibly, a restore
partition. Neither of which is there, and it thinks the hard drive is
corrupted.

If you don't have a full Install Windows CD, you're not going to be
able to install Windows.

I was using a full installation Windows XP Pro CD.

By the way, I also have an installation CD for Windows 2003 Server. I
tried booting with this disk too and it produced the same result.

Strange.

You mentioned in another post that the laptop in question was a Dell
Studio 1537. That model originally came with Vista. See if you can find
someone with a full Vista Install CD, and see if it boots up without the
blue screen. If it does, I'm thinking there's a hardware/driver issues
with XP and 2003 Server.

You could try a "repair" CD to repartition and reformat the drive to
something that Windows would definitely recognized.

Also, the hard drive in the 1537 is SATA. XP and 2003 server are fairly
old. Could be that the SATA interface is the culprit. Might be the
graphics chip. But in any case, if Ubuntu is running on it, Windows
should, too.

Stef

Also, the hard drive in the 1537 is SATA. XP and 2003 server are fairly
old. Could be that the SATA interface is the culprit. Might be the
graphics chip. But in any case, if Ubuntu is running on it, Windows
should, too.

I am running XP on my main PC (a homebuilt desktop) with 3 SATA HDDs and it
works fine. The only minor issue with this is that the Safely Remove
Hardware function lists the 3 HDDs as though they were removable devices.
This is fine as long as I don't accidentally click on one of them and hit
Remove!

Also, the hard drive in the 1537 is SATA. XP and 2003 server are fairly
old. Could be that the SATA interface is the culprit. Might be the
graphics chip. But in any case, if Ubuntu is running on it, Windows
should, too.

I am running XP on my main PC (a homebuilt desktop) with 3 SATA HDDs and it
works fine. The only minor issue with this is that the Safely Remove
Hardware function lists the 3 HDDs as though they were removable devices.
This is fine as long as I don't accidentally click on one of them and hit
Remove!

On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:19:14 +0100, Kev wrote:

Also, the hard drive in the 1537 is SATA. XP and 2003 server are
fairly old. Could be that the SATA interface is the culprit. Might be
the graphics chip. But in any case, if Ubuntu is running on it,
Windows should, too.

I am running XP on my main PC (a homebuilt desktop) with 3 SATA HDDs and
it works fine. The only minor issue with this is that the Safely Remove
Hardware function lists the 3 HDDs as though they were removable
devices. This is fine as long as I don't accidentally click on one of
them and hit Remove!

Are the hard drives correctly identified in "My Computer"? That is, as
NOT removable? Is there a C: drive? The fact that XP "thinks" they are
removable media is indicative of a problem. At the very least, you
should discover why.

Stef

You could try a "repair" CD to repartition and reformat the drive to
something that Windows would definitely recognized.

Also, the hard drive in the 1537 is SATA. XP and 2003 server are fairly
old. Could be that the SATA interface is the culprit. Might be the
graphics chip. But in any case, if Ubuntu is running on it, Windows
should, too.

Good call about SATA, Stef. In the BIOS there are two settings for SATA
drives: IDE and AHCI. It was set to AHCI, so I changed it to IDE and tried
booting up with the Windows XP disk again. This time it worked and I
successfully installed Windows.

Still not finished yet though. Although Windows XP is up and running, there
are some yellow items listed in Device Manager.

Kev wrote:
Good call about SATA, Stef. In the BIOS there are two settings for
SATA drives: IDE and AHCI. It was set to AHCI, so I changed it to
IDE and tried booting up with the Windows XP disk again. This time
it worked and I successfully installed Windows.

Still not finished yet though. Although Windows XP is up and
running, there are some yellow items listed in Device Manager.

Go to the manufacturer web sites for each of your hardware components and
download the Windows XP drivers for the devices in your computer.

Some of the main ones will be:

- Network device(s) (likely how you will connect to the Internet and other
computers.)
- Chipset (motherboard.)
- Video device(s).
- Audio device(s).
- Other hardware you may have attached internally and externally.

You will want to get the drivers from the manufacturer web pages. If you
are lucky - you can get most of them from one place (if this is a Dell, HP,
Packard Bell, Gateway, Lenovo or other type of computer where you can go to
a web page, enter your model number and select which OS you have and get the
drivers appropriate for that system with a minimal of knowledge about what
you actually purchased.)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

I am running XP on my main PC (a homebuilt desktop) with 3 SATA HDDs and
it works fine. The only minor issue with this is that the Safely Remove
Hardware function lists the 3 HDDs as though they were removable
devices. This is fine as long as I don't accidentally click on one of
them and hit Remove!

Are the hard drives correctly identified in "My Computer"? That is, as
NOT removable? Is there a C: drive? The fact that XP "thinks" they are
removable media is indicative of a problem. At the very least, you
should discover why.

They work as normal drives in Explorer and elsewhere, apart from in Safely
Remove Hardware. It's been like this for 3 years and it has never caused
any problems (as far as I know). I did post a question about it on a forum
once, but nobody came up with any useful ideas.

Go to the manufacturer web sites for each of your hardware components and
download the Windows XP drivers for the devices in your computer.

Some of the main ones will be:

- Network device(s) (likely how you will connect to the Internet and other
computers.)
- Chipset (motherboard.)
- Video device(s).
- Audio device(s).
- Other hardware you may have attached internally and externally.

It appears that WXP drivers for the graphics card (ATI HD3400) are
non-existent. Should I install Vista drivers instead or not install
anything?

Kev wrote:
It appears that WXP drivers for the graphics card (ATI HD3400) are
non-existent. Should I install Vista drivers instead or not install
anything?

No. You cannot use drivers for newer OSes on past OSes in most cases/unless
specified. ;-)

Don't know where you looked - get the Display Drivers only - IMHO:
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_ca...=xp/radeonx-xp
(In the release notes, it says it supports the ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series.)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Shenan Stanley wrote:
Kev wrote:
It appears that WXP drivers for the graphics card (ATI HD3400) are
non-existent. Should I install Vista drivers instead or not install
anything?

No. You cannot use drivers for newer OSes on past OSes in most
cases/unless specified. ;-)

To Kev:

I've lost track. Which OS did you decide to install on your laptop?

I've lost track. Which OS did you decide to install on your laptop?

Windows XP Pro

XP was my first choice, as I will be using this laptop primarily to run some
particular specialist software that happens to run best on this o/s. Vista
might have been acceptable (albeit with some issues), but anyway I don't
have a copy of Vista.

Kev wrote:
I've lost track. Which OS did you decide to install on your laptop?

Windows XP Pro

Did you go to the Dell website and download all the correct XP drivers?
What is the model and model number of this Dell laptop?

Did you go to the Dell website and download all the correct XP drivers?
What is the model and model number of this Dell laptop?

Dell Studio 1537

The Dell website only has Vista drivers for this model. I am having
difficulty finding XP versions.