Joxmas
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Problem Installing XP? i386/asms not found. Also can't boot from floppy.
When installing XP on a friends machine (install on my system went smoothly) that previously had Win2000 installed everything was going great until after formatting and loading files Windows XP needed and a reboot I got this error as Windows told me it needed 39 minutes to do it's thing :
Fatal Error: An error has been encountered that prevents setup from continuing.
One of the components that Windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.
Press OK to view the setup log file.
This component is i386/asms. I went to Microsoft's Knowledge base and found this solution:
If you install Windows XP on a computer that is not currently running Windows, follow these steps:
1. Insert a Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) or Microsoft Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer.
2. Insert the Windows XP CD in the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
3. Type xcopy CD-DriveLetter\I386\*.* c:\i386\*.* /s /e, and then press ENTER. For example, if your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is designated as d:, type d:\I386\*.* c:\i386\*.* /s /e. Note: Because of the size of the I386 folder, this process may take few minutes.
4. Type c:\i386\winnt.exe, and then press ENTER.
Tried to boot from floppy with win98 boot disk and got this error "NTLDR missing - press any key to reboot"
Now I'm at a loss. Can't load WINXP and can't boot from floppy to try and solve the initial problem.
Anyone? Told my friend everything would be smooth and now he's been w/o a p.c. for 3 days. Help.
Fatal Error: An error has been encountered that prevents setup from continuing.
One of the components that Windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.
Press OK to view the setup log file.
This component is i386/asms. I went to Microsoft's Knowledge base and found this solution:
If you install Windows XP on a computer that is not currently running Windows, follow these steps:
1. Insert a Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) or Microsoft Windows 98 Startup disk in the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer.
2. Insert the Windows XP CD in the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
3. Type xcopy CD-DriveLetter\I386\*.* c:\i386\*.* /s /e, and then press ENTER. For example, if your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is designated as d:, type d:\I386\*.* c:\i386\*.* /s /e. Note: Because of the size of the I386 folder, this process may take few minutes.
4. Type c:\i386\winnt.exe, and then press ENTER.
Tried to boot from floppy with win98 boot disk and got this error "NTLDR missing - press any key to reboot"
Now I'm at a loss. Can't load WINXP and can't boot from floppy to try and solve the initial problem.
Anyone? Told my friend everything would be smooth and now he's been w/o a p.c. for 3 days. Help.
ASKER
I have made sure the pc is set to boot from a floppy and still no luck. Still get the error "NTLDR missing". I decided to try and boot from floppy on my pc which is operating normally and I get the same error. I thought it may be the disk so I made another boot disk and still no luck.
you may need the xp boot disk which you can download from www.bootdisk.com just make sure that you have 6 floppies ready to extract the files to
I've had some mixed results in loading XP over the top of another system. Worst OS, and a complete waste of time is Me.
Hopefully you did a backup first, if not take the drive out and put it into your XP pc and do a virus scan on it before anything else. Regardless of the file system the XP pc will see the drive and save all the data to the your own drive. While its there format the drive and partition it as you need. return the drive to its own PC.
Access bios and make sure the boot selection is cd before hdd. Put your installation disk in and restart the PC. If the install is a upgrade version it will ask you for a original OS installation disk. Just remove the XP disk and place any Win98/Me/2000 install disk in - after it acknowledges it it will ask you to remove. Now just follow your nose and providing that there is no hardware compatability issues you should be right.
Cheers
OzShag
Hopefully you did a backup first, if not take the drive out and put it into your XP pc and do a virus scan on it before anything else. Regardless of the file system the XP pc will see the drive and save all the data to the your own drive. While its there format the drive and partition it as you need. return the drive to its own PC.
Access bios and make sure the boot selection is cd before hdd. Put your installation disk in and restart the PC. If the install is a upgrade version it will ask you for a original OS installation disk. Just remove the XP disk and place any Win98/Me/2000 install disk in - after it acknowledges it it will ask you to remove. Now just follow your nose and providing that there is no hardware compatability issues you should be right.
Cheers
OzShag
ASKER
Problem solved!! My buddy was using his cd writer as his primary cd drive and had removed his regular cd-rom to install his Audigy sound card because he was an idiot and bought a Compaq which has no extra bays. We decided to give the regular cd-rom a go and voila! The install just continued from where it had failed prior. Thanks for all your tips guys.
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Each computer is a little different in how to enter the BIOS, but many use either a specified 'Function' key or 'delete'. If you read the display while the computer is booting up, you will often see what key to press. It is usually accompanied by "Enter Set-up" or something similar.
The time window to enter the BIOS is often only 2 seconds, but usually, if you hit the specified key after the memory has been counted, it should let you in.
Unfortunately, BIOS displays are not the same, so I can't step-by-step this for you, but you want to look for something refeerencing 'Boot Order'.
When you find it, make sure the floppy drive is listed to boot before the hard drive. Make sure you save settings when you exit. The computer will automatically reboot
Insert your 98 Boot Disk and, hopefully, you will get a DOS prompt instead of the NTLDR missing message.