HP hard drive xp install problem

I was give a HP Pavilion x1938 that had a ton of spyware and viruses so I decided to start over. I did the usual; boot off cd, reformat hd, install xp. Now i'm in a kind of loop. It said xp is on hard drive do I want to reformat. When I do, I get in the loop again. Install xp, xp exists,do you want to reformat. ect.ect.
Any advice, and I hope I made this clear.
Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

Have your tried deleting the partition?

 

yes, I think it was hit "L" to delete partition.
I've installed xp many times with no problem. Till now.

 

The best way I have found for this is to get an Win98 or other bootable disk. Select go to command prompt when computer boots up and do a complete F-Disk on the drive and remove all partions. Then create one new partition.. Exit out of F-Disk then reboot with XP Disk in again this should work

 

ddp
the file I downloaded if 6 floppies worth. Is this the right file.
If it is not a pain to explain, what is causing this.

 

It will give him the FAT32 to start with but when he loads XP he can then select to format using NTFS What it will do is get him into his system so he can actually load XP and thats all I was trying to do, but the floppies will work too..

 

I've got the 6 floppies (hard to believe I had them) I will install a dvd burner when I get up and running.
So I just use these floppies instead of xp disk?

 

I just got a file hpn.sys is corrupted error on disk 4. I
guess I have to reformat all 6 disks and start over. I'll let yall know how it works out. Thanks for the advice so far.

 

Try this boot disk
http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm?OVRAW=boot disk&OVKEY=boot disk&OVMTC=standard

 

Here is another place to get some boot disks. To make it easy for you though I would go ahead and use either the win95 or 98 boot disks then jusgo into "Fdisk" and delete all your partitions. Then create your partition. It will tell you need to restart and format for the partition to be active. So just restart and then format the C:\ drive. Then put in your WinXP CD and restart the computer and reload XP like you normally would making sure you format your partition again using the NTFS file system

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

 

Thanks for sticking with me. The 6 disks didn't work. I got back in the loop again.
bbmayo,
I just downloaded the file you said, and will give it a try.
Thanks for hanging with me.

 

I'll try to find a 95 or 98 window boot disk. There is an 8 meg partition that will not go away. I can't seem to delete it.
Thanks for all your help. I'll let you know how it works out.

 

That last link I provided has all the boot disk's you will need

 

bbmayo
That did it. 98 boot disk and fdisk.Thank you very much. I will file that away in my things to remember and pass along.
Hogan

 

No problem DDP's way is more preffered but that way I showed you is the easiest for most people and it usually works. Glad you got it working

 

I got hd formated and xp installed. The mobo is an asus a7v-vm, made for hp. I can find no support on the Asus site. Searching for my drivers now (chipset, audio and video).
Thanks ddp and bbmayo for the help.
Hogan