Windows XP hung at Setup is Starting Windows screen

I have a Dell Dimension E521 that came preloaded with Windows Vista
Home Premium 32-bit edition. I am trying to delete Windows Vista and
install Windows XP Professional. I have installed Windows XP Pro on
blank hard drives dozens of times and usually things go smoothly. When
I boot from the Windows XP CD, Windows Setup copies various files from
the CD to the hard drive. However, before it gets to the point where I
can partition the hard drive and continue the installation, the
computer hangs. Specifically, the computer hands at the "Windows
Setup" screen where it says "Setup is Starting Windows". Does anyone
know how to solve this problem so that I can continue installing
Windows XP?

Are you using a retail version of XP? If you are using anything other
than a Dell XP CD, then you are missing the Sata drivers. You can
download them from support.dell.com and put them on a floppy. Since I
doubt your machine has a floppy drive, you'll need a USB floppy.

Tom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel [private.php?do=newpm&u=]
> Posted At: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 9:28 AM
> Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Conversation: Windows XP hung at Setup is Starting Windows screen
> Subject: Windows XP hung at Setup is Starting Windows screen
>
> I have a Dell Dimension E521 that came preloaded with Windows Vista
> Home Premium 32-bit edition. I am trying to delete Windows Vista and
> install Windows XP Professional. I have installed Windows XP Pro on
> blank hard drives dozens of times and usually things go smoothly. When
> I boot from the Windows XP CD, Windows Setup copies various files from
> the CD to the hard drive. However, before it gets to the point where I
> can partition the hard drive and continue the installation, the
> computer hangs. Specifically, the computer hands at the "Windows
> Setup" screen where it says "Setup is Starting Windows". Does anyone
> know how to solve this problem so that I can continue installing
> Windows XP?

I am using a Dell XP Pro with SP2 CD. My Dimension E521 does have a
floppy drive.

On Sep 4, 8:38 am, "Tom Scales" <tjsca...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Are you using a retail version of XP? If you are using anything other
> than a Dell XP CD, then you are missing the Sata drivers. You can
> download them from support.dell.com and put them on a floppy. Since I
> doubt your machine has a floppy drive, you'll need a USB floppy.
>
> Tom
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Daniel [mailto:daniel.ras...@gmail.com]
> > Posted At: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 9:28 AM
> > Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> > Conversation: Windows XP hung at Setup is Starting Windows screen
> > Subject: Windows XP hung at Setup is Starting Windows screen
>
> > I have a Dell Dimension E521 that came preloaded with Windows Vista
> > Home Premium 32-bit edition. I am trying to delete Windows Vista and
> > install Windows XP Professional. I have installed Windows XP Pro on
> > blank hard drives dozens of times and usually things go smoothly. When
> > I boot from the Windows XP CD, Windows Setup copies various files from
> > the CD to the hard drive. However, before it gets to the point where I
> > can partition the hard drive and continue the installation, the
> > computer hangs. Specifically, the computer hands at the "Windows
> > Setup" screen where it says "Setup is Starting Windows". Does anyone
> > know how to solve this problem so that I can continue installing
> > Windows XP?

Perhaps the best thing to do is to delete all partitions and then try to install
XP SP2? It may be getting confused if a Vista partition is there... Ben Myers

On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:16:15 -0700, Daniel <> wrote:

>I am using a Dell XP Pro with SP2 CD. My Dimension E521 does have a
>floppy drive.
>
>On Sep 4, 8:38 am, "Tom Scales" <tjsca...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Are you using a retail version of XP? If you are using anything other
>> than a Dell XP CD, then you are missing the Sata drivers. You can
>> download them from support.dell.com and put them on a floppy. Since I
>> doubt your machine has a floppy drive, you'll need a USB floppy.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Daniel [mailto:daniel.ras...@gmail.com]
>> > Posted At: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 9:28 AM
>> > Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
>> > Conversation: Windows XP hung at Setup is Starting Windows screen
>> > Subject: Windows XP hung at Setup is Starting Windows screen
>>
>> > I have a Dell Dimension E521 that came preloaded with Windows Vista
>> > Home Premium 32-bit edition. I am trying to delete Windows Vista and
>> > install Windows XP Professional. I have installed Windows XP Pro on
>> > blank hard drives dozens of times and usually things go smoothly. When
>> > I boot from the Windows XP CD, Windows Setup copies various files from
>> > the CD to the hard drive. However, before it gets to the point where I
>> > can partition the hard drive and continue the installation, the
>> > computer hangs. Specifically, the computer hands at the "Windows
>> > Setup" screen where it says "Setup is Starting Windows". Does anyone
>> > know how to solve this problem so that I can continue installing
>> > Windows XP?
>

On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:54:11 -0400, Ben Myers
<> wrote:

>Perhaps the best thing to do is to delete all partitions and then try to install
>XP SP2? It may be getting confused if a Vista partition is there... Ben Myers
>

I was thinking the same thing because Vista being newer, XP might not
recognize a Vista partition. I don't recall having any problems late
last year when I installed XP pro on a sata drive that never had Vista
on it.

Tom Scales wrote:
> Are you using a retail version of XP? If you are using anything other
> than a Dell XP CD, then you are missing the Sata drivers. You can
> download them from support.dell.com and put them on a floppy. Since I
> doubt your machine has a floppy drive, you'll need a USB floppy.

But if that's the case, he'd get an error msg from Setup to the extent
it can't find any hard drives and is aborting (yes, I've encountered
this more than once).

I wonder if it might help if you used something like Partition magic
first to delete the Dell defined partition and define your own? Seems to
me that would make the installation tider and eliminate Vista as a variable.

I may have missed most of this thread, but some time ago we
experimented with Vista RC1. Afterwards XP would not install.
I do not recall exact message.
I used a tiny utility from NT days called delpart, it removes ANY
partition. Should be available on net.
Alternately, some NEWER versions of partition utilities should be able
to remove it (HDD structure) As I recall, my (old) Partition Magic did
NOT.