HELP....computer and no OS

R

rwill3

New Member
omg idk whAT HAPPENED but i turned o my computer and this is what it says

Windows failed to start. a recent hardware or software change might e the cause. To fix the problm:

1. Insert your windows installatio disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next"
3. Click "Repair your computer"

if you do not have this disc, contact your system administraor or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \Boot\BCD

Status: oxc0000098

Info: The Windows Boot Configuration Data File does not contain a valid OS entry





PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!!!!!!!
i dont like to use my laptop all the time because i really dot like Vista all that much. so if you could help me get XP back on my desktop without the use of money please i would really appreciate it
 
oh yeah by the way...i am trying to fix a HP Pavilion 520c so if anyone has the original disc for it could you send it to me and i will send them back as soon as the problem is resolved...that would be a great help
 
A silly question perhaps, but why don't you have the restore disc(s)?
When booting the laptop, did you press F8 and pick "last known good configuration"?
Have you tried pressing F8 and selecting Safe Mode to attempt to start Windows and then get into Device Manager to see if there's a "!" next to anything, showing a problem?
 
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Hey OvenMaster when using the Fixboot and Fixmbr commands here with XP on one ide drive and Vista on the second I was forced to reinstall Vista to see XP again as the previous versions of Windows option. The freeware EasyBCD failed to see XP added back into the Vista boot loader.

There it sounds like XP was knocked out of the boot loader maybe temporarily or needing a reinstalled or recovery of Vista to see it restored as a boot option. Later you see XP set as the default version that loads at startup. No one can send you a disk for this from CF. You will need either an original HP recovery disk set or buy a full install version for each version of Windows there. That would see your own product key.
 
Hm. Is this a dual-boot machine that rwill is talking about? If it is, I missed that... I'm dog-tired and maybe not firing mentally on all cylinders.
Tom
 
Well this is one thing rwill3 will have to explain. The main question here is was XP upgraded to Vista via purchase of laptop? or was one version installed as a second OS?
 
no its jus a Windows XP computer and for sum reason its not on here anymore...there is no OS at all. so i guess i will have to try to get a restore disc from HP...and its not a laptop its a desktop PC....
does anyone know how i can go about getting this disc from HP?
 
So you have Vista on a laptop there and want to restore XP on one of their desktop models which will require you to probably go through the dealer that sold you the desktop to begin with. That would be the place to have order the system recovery disk for a price there. Or you have the option to buy an OEM disk for far lower price over retail without the carton and large paperback book.

Either way you still will be paying money to see your own full version disk or disk set from HP. There's no real way(legal) around that. We don't discuss any other methods as you will see in Rule #1 of the http://www.computerforum.com/52038-forum-rules.html That's one good reason why CF remains #1 as a forum.
 
ok i have an OEM windows xp professional disk now....and i tried to install it but nothin works....it shows the same exact screen as i posted above....
anyone got ideas to help for this now?

even if u dont i just got a new emachine so ill be fine even if i dont get it fixed but it would still be nice to have an extra PC around the house
 
Are you set to boot from the XP disk and not the hard drive? You may need a separate drive partitioning to see what is preventing the XP Installer from running normally. Don't forget you have a prebuild system with a hidden recovery partition as well as disk recognition not seeing the original disk.

The screen is a request screen provided by Vista for that version's installation disk being seen. A good drive tool like Gparted will clean everything off for a new primary and fresh clean install of XP Pro there. First you have to go into the bios to assign the cd rom setting at the first and even second boot device.

The XP installer iteself won't remove the newer version of Windows there. This is why the free Linux drive tool GParted live for cd is one suggestion for this. I know from trying both XP Home and Pro install disks to remove Vista here to see if they would work.
 
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