"Fatal Error. An Error Has Been Encountered That Has Prevented Setup from Continuing" Error Message During Windows XP Setup

Method 1

1. Restart the computer.
2. When you see the Please select the operating system to start message displayed on the screen, press F8.
3. On the Windows Advanced Option Menu list, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration, and then press ENTER.
4. Use the ARROW keys to select Microsoft Windows XP in the Please select the operating system to start list, and then press ENTER to start Windows XP.

Method 2
1. Quit Setup, and then start the computer in MS-DOS mode by using the startup disk that was created by the earlier version of Microsoft Windows (either Windows 98 or Windows Me).
2. At the command prompt, type scanreg /fix, and then press ENTER.
3. Restart the computer in Normal mode.
4. Uninstall any programs that scanreg reported as having a problem. To do this, use the Add and Remove Programs utility in Control Panel.
5. Run Setup again from the Windows XP installation CD-ROM.

Method 3:
Remove Other ProgramsIf the steps is described earlier in this article do not resolve the problem, you may want to quit Setup, revert to your previous operating system, and then remove any programs that could cause a problem, like antivirus programs. Run Windows XP Setup again.To do this, restart the computer, and then click Cancel Windows XP Setup. If this option is not displayed on the screen when you restart your computer and resume Setup, click the article numbers below for more information about how to restore the computer to the previous version of Windows:
308233 How to Start the Windows XP Uninstallation Process from a Command Prompt
312569 How to Manually Start the Uninstall Process to Remove Windows XP
314052 How to Manually Remove Windows XP and Restore Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium