[dkeefe75]

I have been trying to complete a clean install of XP and it gets stuck at 34 minutes remaining. I have read that many people have had this problem and I thought that I found the solution in a forum. Someone said that when it gets stuck to remove the cd, open a cmd prompt and type setupapi.log. Then review the end of the log looking for a .inf extension which will be the device causing the problem. Then it says to close the notepad and go to c:/windows/inf this command doesn't work. can anyone help me? It says that I need to delete the file containing the .inf extension.

Thanks,
Dennis

[TerryNet]

My experience installing XP is that it can seem like "forever" for the "removing temporary files" part, especially with a CPU and memory challenged PC. And nothing seems to be happening. And I begin to wonder how much longer I should be patient. How long did you wait before deciding it was stuck or frozen?

[dkeefe75]

About 20-30 minutes. The cd stopped spinning and the hard drive stopped running.

[TerryNet]

Somebody may have a better idea, but I'd give it at least an hour.

[xLostSoulx]

Originally Posted by TerryNet

Somebody may have a better idea, but I'd give it at least an hour.

That is way too long to install XP. The max is about 40-50 minutes. Is the CD you are using a burnt copy, if so you will probably have to get the original CD from your manufacturer.

Also, has your computer had Windows XP before? It could be the processor / ram not being good enough, so please tell us your specs.

If it is NOT your first time installing XP on the machine, then have you formated the drive (usually C:\) this can be done by plopping in the CD and waiting for the Wizard to come up (NOT WITHIN WINDOWS) showing your drives and partitions. If you have one drive currently in your machine, then the format will be a breeze for you. If you would like more than one drive in your system, it is recommended that you put the drive in now so you do not confuse Windows about the startup.

I'm not sure off the top of my head but:

1. Wait until the screen pops up and everything it loaded (the screen background is either blue or black)
2. Once you can see your drives, navigate (using your keyboard) to your local drive (the one you wish to put Windows on)
3. Press Delete Partition (there is a hotkey, so read the wording below the drives)
4. After deleting, make it create one and just accept the default values.
5. Now it is formating your drive then setting up files for your XP installation.

I hope this information is useful to you. If you are unsure of which screen I speak of, the please refer to this image:

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/ima...nstall%205.gif

Kind regards!

[Paynesmanor]

Originally Posted by xLostSoulx

That is way too long to install XP. The max is about 40-50 minutes. Is the CD you are using a burnt copy, if so you will probably have to get the original CD from your manufacturer.

Also, has your computer had Windows XP before? It could be the processor / ram not being good enough, so please tell us your specs.

If it is NOT your first time installing XP on the machine, then have you formated the drive (usually C:\) this can be done by plopping in the CD and waiting for the Wizard to come up (NOT WITHIN WINDOWS) showing your drives and partitions. If you have one drive currently in your machine, then the format will be a breeze for you. If you would like more than one drive in your system, it is recommended that you put the drive in now so you do not confuse Windows about the startup.

I'm not sure off the top of my head but:

1. Wait until the screen pops up and everything it loaded (the screen background is either blue or black)
2. Once you can see your drives, navigate (using your keyboard) to your local drive (the one you wish to put Windows on)
3. Press Delete Partition (there is a hotkey, so read the wording below the drives)
4. After deleting, make it create one and just accept the default values.
5. Now it is formating your drive then setting up files for your XP installation.

I hope this information is useful to you. If you are unsure of which screen I speak of, the please refer to this image:

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/ima...nstall%205.gif

Kind regards!

Umm, When I install XP, (over 60 times, many computers). Some will take longer then others, Some have taken 6 hours to make it the 39 mins. Some tell how far its gone, Some stay stuck at the 34 mins, until its totally done. (does the hard drive light stop flickering? if so then its frozen), and just retry..

Sometimes, you just need to Format the entire drive, and then install fresh to get a os on it.

From your discription, and experance, sounds like you have a bad CD drive or Bad Hard drive though.. Give it about 2 hours of sitting frozen, Have you added extra ram sticks? if so Pull them out before installing... Ram is weird when it comes to the install, As it will mess things up, But after the install is complete the ram works fine???
Call me Crazy, Cuz I feel like it..

[TheOutcaste]

Originally Posted by dkeefe75

...Then it says to close the notepad and go to c:/windows/inf this command doesn't work.

Are you typing c:/windows/inf or c:\windows\inf?
You have to use the backslash \, not the forward slash /

Jerry

[managed]

This 34 minutes freeze is often caused by a driver not installing, if nothing else has worked try disabling as much hardware as you can in the Bios (com ports, on-board lan etc) and also remove any non-essential PCI cards then try the install again.

[Hughv]

This is a known bug, and this MS KB article may help:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828267

[xLostSoulx]

Originally Posted by Paynesmanor

Umm, When I install XP, (over 60 times, many computers). Some will take longer then others, Some have taken 6 hours to make it the 39 mins. Some tell how far its gone, Some stay stuck at the 34 mins, until its totally done. (does the hard drive light stop flickering? if so then its frozen), and just retry..

Sometimes, you just need to Format the entire drive, and then install fresh to get a os on it.

From your discription, and experance, sounds like you have a bad CD drive or Bad Hard drive though.. Give it about 2 hours of sitting frozen, Have you added extra ram sticks? if so Pull them out before installing... Ram is weird when it comes to the install, As it will mess things up, But after the install is complete the ram works fine???
Call me Crazy, Cuz I feel like it..

6 hours to install XP? What were the specs on them? I have installed XP on multiple machines (at least 10) and it never took that long. I can see the time varying because the speed of processor / how much ram and ect but 6 hours is insane, though I don't deny it.

[Paynesmanor]

A P2 450Mhz, with a 100FSB.. and 128Mbps ram.

[xLostSoulx]

That is a slow computer, how could it even run Windows XP? I can see why it took so long to install. How much ram did it have, cause you never put that into your post.

[tekmike]

Dkeefe75 i had the same problem installing windows. It kept freezing when it got to 34 minutes remaining. The fix you mentioned definitely works. After 3 days of failed installs this method finally sorted the problem. In the setupapi.log the last few lines should tell you the .inf file that is giving the problem. You should then close notepad, locate the troublesome file and delete it using the DEL command in DOS. I used a windows 98 startup disk to access the drives and delete the file. Remember DOS can only see FAT partitions. If you have an NTFS partition use the Recovery Console to delete the file.

Good Luck!