xp install problem

Z

zbo2

New Member
i have an older HP media center desktop with windows XP media center edition. once before i had to reload all the software due to a hard drive crash. i purchased the recovery cd's and a set of boot disks from HP. Used them at that time with no problems. today i had another event with the computer and tried to recover from the recovery partition with no luck. so i pulled out the cd set that i used before and it got all the way through formatting the hard drive then came up with a file missing error and would not continue. if i try to startup with the first cd it just says that these cd's do not support this computer??? these worked fine a year and a half ago. almost seems like they have a date stamp on the cd's so if they are more than a year old they won't work anymore. i called HP and they said a tech support person could get me up and running for 60 bucks......my question to them was " why won't these cd's work anymore "? no answer for that one. but if they can get it up and running with just a phone call i was wondering if anybody help with this?
thanks
Joe
 
could be scratched and if they get badly scratched one file can make of the difference, why not just a buy XP again?
 
cohen said:
why not just a buy XP again?
Click to expand...

He shouldn't have to.

Honestly, I'd try the recovery partition and the disks a couple more times. Sounds tedious, but it could be a random error that may not repeat itself. If that doesn't work, you could try and copy the CDs on another computer. As cohen suggested, the disks may be damaged.
 
zbo2 said:
i have an older HP media center desktop with windows XP media center edition. once before i had to reload all the software due to a hard drive crash. i purchased the recovery cd's and a set of boot disks from HP. Used them at that time with no problems. today i had another event with the computer and tried to recover from the recovery partition with no luck. so i pulled out the cd set that i used before and it got all the way through formatting the hard drive then came up with a file missing error and would not continue. if i try to startup with the first cd it just says that these cd's do not support this computer??? these worked fine a year and a half ago. almost seems like they have a date stamp on the cd's so if they are more than a year old they won't work anymore. i called HP and they said a tech support person could get me up and running for 60 bucks......my question to them was " why won't these cd's work anymore "? no answer for that one. but if they can get it up and running with just a phone call i was wondering if anybody help with this?
thanks
Joe
Click to expand...

File missing errors usually reference bad memory sticks. Try using only 1 stick at a time and try installing again. If that don't work then try with just the other stick. Or you could download memtest and burn to cd and boot to it and test your existing memory for errors.
 
johnb35 said:
File missing errors usually reference bad memory sticks. Try using only 1 stick at a time and try installing again. If that don't work then try with just the other stick. Or you could download memtest and burn to cd and boot to it and test your existing memory for errors.
Click to expand...

Yep. There's been a thousand cases like this that were simply fixed by replacing/taking out sticks, or loosening timings/clockspeed of the RAM modules. The latter two possibilities you may want to check on if you've done any OCing or so.
 
thanks for the responses. when the recovery partition didn't work the first time i went to the recovery cd's. when i did that it went all the way through formatting the hard drive before i had the problem, so trying the recovery partition won't work. i've tried these cd's several times with no luck hoping that i was just a random error. i'm going to unplug my printer and anything else that i won't need in just a basic boot up to see if that helps. i'll give the memory sticks a try also. as far as a scratch on the disks.....i used them once and put them back in the jacket and stored them. i have 2 sets of these factory recovery disks for this computer and they both do and say exactly the same thing. i'll post back after i try these things.....
Joe
 
so out i went and bought a new set of 2005 xp media center disks. well guess what........when i go to boot from the new disks it just says that the ntldr file is missing and will not let me proceed. what exactly is the mtldr file....what does it do?

hp media center pc

2.8 p4

160 gig hard drive

1 meg ram

thanks for your help!

Joe
 
ok more info.........a buddy of mine has about 5 differant xp install cd's and he told me he has run into that problem before and to try a differant xp install disk........i tried 1 xp pro disk and that didn't work...........he had another one and that fired right up and installed with no problem. he thinks it has to do with the drivers in the system bios for the cd rom drives.....beats me. he said after i get that up and running to stick the xp media center cd in and load the 05 media center voer top of the xp pro. i can't seem to get the xp media center cd to go. when i try to boot with that disk in it doesn't do anything and when i go to it in windows explorer it won't fire up either......anybody have any answers to this?
 
"when i go to boot from the new disks it just says that the ntldr file is missing and will not let me proceed. what exactly is the mtldr file....what does it do"

ntldr is the bootloader

go into the bios and turn off anything that says vitrus/bootsector/mbr protection. rerun the install.

basically some BIOSes prevent things from writing to the very start of the disks, this is nice as some viruses like to hide there - however when you are installing an OS it needs to be off as the OS needs to put the bootloader there
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top