Trying to wipe/reinstall XPPro on compaq nx600 for my neighbor. He upgraded his RAM to 2GB and blew out the dust bunnies with his leaf blower (!) - after that it wouldn't boot. He "tried the HP Repair disk and a few other things" existing partitions look like this: 76317MB Disk 0 at ID o on atapi [MBR] c: Partition1[NTFS] 981MB Disk on disk [MBR] Unpartitioned space 980MB I assume that the 980MB space was where HP used to store their files, but it's since been formatted by owner. Install on larger partition runs through normal format,blueXP EULA screens, files copy over, but when it reboots and starts all over instead of completing the setup. I'd like to combine the part.s and use the entire HD or at least just get past this cycle. Tools on hand: I have a Win98SE iso disc and a laymans knowledge of fdisk... also a SuperFdisk iso CD. that I can boot to. I also have the XP Pro cd that came with the latptop from HP. When I let it boot with no CD in - I get a check cable/media error as though there were no HD in the pc. I have tried reseating it. I can also take it out and attach it to my other PC via usb if that would help. but when I do that - I can't "see" the smaller partition. Any thoughts? (ignore the CPU/RAM specs in my header)

Either the RAM is the problem or the leaf blower knocked something loose inside the case. I don't know why people resort to such ridiculous extremes. The 1st thing you need to do is check all the connections, especially the CPU cooling fan. Also, you should never install RAM & attempt to boot into Windows without 1st running a memory diagnostics test. Bad RAM can wreak all kinds on havoc on a system. Get a copy of memtest86 3.5, boot off it & let the diagnostics run...if any errors are found, the RAM is defective & must be replaced. Windows will not install if the RAM is bad. http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Thanks! RAM is fine, I think - the PC booted many times over a couple of days before that happened. It's strange the drive is viewable, modifiable, etc. right? Could it have anything to do with the HP partition?