[AmeliaJade]

Hi.
My computer is a HP Pavilion dv1000. I don't really know many of the other details on it. It had been working just fine. My daughter was trying to get into delish.com, it wouldn't load, she got upset and shut the lid pretty hard. Then this problem occurred the next time I tried to turn it on. Also, the XP disc I used had never been opened before. The only program that I've added to the computer recently is MSN Works & Money.
I got the message NTDETECT failed. So I tried to repair the system using the XP disc. That didn't take. So I tried just reinstalling the whole thing and it got to about 11% or so and everything after that said it couldn't be installed. It told me to press [Enter] to try again (which didn't work), [Esc] to skip, or F3 to quit. I tried skipping, despite the message that it might not end up loading correctly, but nothing else would install.
I have 3 partitions, #1 doesn't have enough room. I tried installing it on the 2nd partition which, from what I can tell, is where XP is currently loaded. It had the above problem. And the 3rd one is empty but wouldn't let me install on it either.
I'm not even sure what question to ask. Simply "help?" Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Lance1]

Are you trying to do a clean install? Did you do a full or a quick format of the partition? Full is recommended in this instance. You're daughter slamming the laptop lid didn't help matters. She could very well have damaged the drive from the shock of the impact. Do you have data you need on any of the partitions?

[irdaneel]

It sounds like you are getting read errors from the cd drive. First, try a cleaner disk in it.

If you have any important stuff on the drive be sure to get it off before you proceed with partitioning and formatting.

Now you said you had an HP. When you look at your 3 partitions one is very small (8mb) and one is a bit bigger (maybe 500mb) and one is the rest of the drive. HP has a system recovery partition, the middle sized one. I've never used that for it's intended purpose. I always do a clean install and repartition that space into my own storage media. I'm not sure what your HP system installation disk will allow you to do in that regard either. I've always found their software to be cumbersome and tend to avoid it.

Regardless, it sounds like CD read errors are in your way of completing any installation. You'll need to ensure effective operation there before you can succeed.

[AmeliaJade]

Sorry it took me so long. I only have internet at work since my laptop isn't working.
I tried both the quick and the full format. Neither one would work. The quick is the one that had files not install. The full never got past 0%, I left it overnight and most of the morning.
I don't have any data I need. That is, I already have backups.
I will try to get a cleaner disc this weekend and I'll post my progress. Thank you.

[irdaneel]

You might try deleting all of the partitions, and recreating 1 or 2, then formatting them full, in NTFS, before installing Windows on one of them. Also check the read lens on the CD drive. It may be dirty.

It is possible that the hard drive took a shock when the lid was slammed. They can be replaced if necessary, but more likely the CD reading is the problem.