This is how to fix this problem!
So this is the solution to a 33 (34/36 or 30 something) minute XP installation hangup problem:
Its as simple as deleting a simple 'inf' file which caused the installation to freeze.
I found this info here
First time I had this particular problem with different XP versions. I menaged once to just keep swopping different WIN XP cd's during the install. If you just take out the CD after restarting for the first time during the total installation proces. If you do so before 38 minutes left. There it starts to hang up to 33 minutes, once past the 33 minutes you're home free.
* Let the XP hang up at 34 minutes remaining for the first time
* remove the CD from the CDROM and reboot
* Dont enter the CD when the installation asks for it, instead open the DOS prompt (Shift + F10)
* goto C:/Windows and type setupapi.log, hit enter
* The setupapi.log file opens in a notepad
* Scroll to the very last few lines in the file and search for the word inf
* You will notice that in the last few moments the installation created a file with the extension .inf before dying out (in my case it was the faulty modem for which XP created the file mdmcxpt.inf).
* It means that the device mentioned in the last few lines is faulty and you have to make the installation skip through it.
* Close the notepad and go to the folder C:/windows/inf in command prompt
* Browse through the files to find the .inf which was related to the faulty device.
* Straightaway delete the inf file (eg: del mdmcxpt.inf)
* now put in the XP installation CD and Continue the installation
It will not put in the drivers related to the faulty device and so it wont freeze this time !!
This time I'm a little bit more screwed. My CD-ROMS wont boot a nother CD or will finish any attempt to do a fresh install. My C drive needs to be deleted (f**ked MBR Master Boot Record and / or MFT Master File Table reading error) and again newly created with Fdisk, then formatted and reinstalled
with (just to be sure) a new ISO with XP or whatever. I liked windows 2000 better anyway. My 3 years of XP horror taught my but one thing.. Windows XP? It so much sucks in general. All the bugs, flaws, bleu screens, viruses and spyware and all that kind of crap.
Last edited: Sep 19, 2008