I can't reformat my computer...stuck in recovery console

T

tbfoto

New Member
I got a virus on a system about two years ago. I ended up getting a new computer and put the old one away until now. I got it out and my set of recovery disks with the idea to do a complete system recovery and reformat the system. I hooked it all up and windows XP loaded ok and looked to be working ok but I wanted to run the 3 recovery disks anyway so I loaded the first disk in the DVD bay. I got a pop up asking what I wanted to do. I was able to view all the files on the disk and such but I could not find a way for the computer to just start the recovery process. I even shut off the computer and restarted but it did not start the recovery process or offer any way to run the process. Somewhere along the way I selected to open the recovery console and now have a black screen that I cannot get out of. If I type exit it will restart but always boots up the recovery console. I've tried pressing F8 on start up but I cannot get to safe mode or any other screen. I see the screen during startup that has the selection for the recovery console highlighted and another selection under it but I cannot select any other means of booting up the computer. I'm kind of lost now as to how to get the system to boot back up correctly.

I forgot to mention that I took this machine to a computer shop at the time of the virus and they copied all my files from my hard drive so that I could transfer them to my new machine.
 
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Go into the bios and change your boot order and set cdrom as first device. Then reboot the system and it should automatically boot to the recovery disks.

Can't you arrow down and select the operating system to boot into instead of recovery console? There is also a way to perform a system restore using the recovery console.
 
It is a desktop unit running windows XP
My keyboard is a USB connected keyboard. What would you suggest I use instead? I didnt know there was anything else.
 
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You can try a ps/2 type keyboard and see if it will allow you to select the OS instead of recovery console. Go into the bios and make sure you enalbe usb keyboard and mouse options or legacy USB, depending on how its labeled.
 
Well, I dont have a ps2 so I'll have to check around to see what I can come up with. Thank you for the suggestion.
I've never messed in the bios either so I'm not sure I want to do that just yet....even if I could figure out how to get into it.
 
Enable USB keyboard and mouse support in the BIOS.It should be labeled something like on the following picture:
usbpowers.jpg


After that,set your CD/DVD-ROM disk drive as the first hardware device to boot from then put your Windows recovery disk in the CD/DVD-ROM drive,save everything in CMOS and restart the system (it should restart it automatically).After the restart,system will boot from the disk automatically.After that just format the HDD and reinstall Windows OS and follow the instructions on the screen.



Cheers!
 
has any ram been added some re installs will not work until you take out the extra ram and leave in the original then try it.
 
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