Expert: Murray S. Date: 4/5/2005 Subject: Windows XP: boot to install cd hangs on blank screen
Question I have a small form factor system (MSI MEGA 180) that originally came with Windows XP installed on it. I since had installed Red Hat Fedora (Core 3) on this computer. It's been working well, but I'd like to switch back to XP at this point. However, even though XP was installed before, I'm having trouble even getting it to begin the installation from the CD. The BIOS is set to boot to CD, and I do get the prompt that it has detected a CD. I hit enter (as prompted) for it to continue to boot to the cd, very briefly there is a "setup is detecting hardware..." message on the screen, but then it goes black. I can let it go on forever, but it just stays black. Any ideas on what is causing the installation to hang?
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Answer Howdy:
Linux uses a different formatting program.. You will need to fdisk and format the hdd using a regular Win98SE or ME boot floppy.. You first fdisk option will be to remove all NON-DOS partitions..
Once that is done, as long as the first boot device is set to cd-rom, then the XP cd should have no problems getting everything up and running..
