Please help! I have an Alienware Laptop (don't hold that against me!), and went through Windows XP tech support due to inability to download an antivirus program. Error message kept saying, "Need to have "Download Manager" installed. After 3 days and several hours later, the problem was fixed? My son came along and turned off the computer without going through the proper steps. About 20 minutes later, I tried to turn the computer on, and it would go through a complete circle of almost booting up, getting to the Windows XP screen, then starting all over again. To solve the previous problem with the Windows Tech, I was asked to us my system disk to reinstall Windows XP again. It worked then, so I thought, ok, do it again. (there is no place on the system disk to "repair" anything, so I just attempted to reinstall Windows XP pro sp 2 again. The laptop goes through the first 3 steps just great, but when it gets to the 4 step of installing Windows, it stops reading the system disk. It always stops with 31 minutes to go to complete the installation. I thought there was a scratch on the disk, cleaned it with a soft cloth, checked for scratches (there were none) and the stupid thing stopped with 31 minutes to go. I have borrowed 2 other copies of Windows XP pro Sp2 from other people (thinking that the computer just didn't like its own disk) and again, the darn thing freezes at 31 minutes before completion. I can open the CD drive when it gets to 31 minutes left, and it never gives me an error message to "place the darn disk in the drive" I thought perhaps it would start trying to read that part of the disk, because I don't hear/feel the disk moving prior to opening the drive. I hope someone can help me. thank you Lcarlock

Rence, I had a similar problem last week. When you are installing XP, it will come up with a screen asking you where to install windows. Since you had windows installed before, you will see at least one partition. There is an option to delete the current partition - DELETE THE CURRENT PARTITION ! You will then be able to select the C drive partion where you want to load the software. You will also be promped to format the hard drive - don't select the "quick" format - use the full. Mine took an hour to format because is is 200G. This should take care of business with a fresh, clean install and you will not freeze up. Rence

You can find detailed instructions on how to do a clean install here: How to do a clean XP install