Windows wont load up anymore...

Underground_Evo

Underground_Evo

New Member
I just bought a new Dell and installed a wireless network for my older HP(not too old).

I had it running for about 2 days and ran System Restore to about 3 months ago and it went through its deal with restoring and when it rebooted, it went to the screen that says it couldnt be booted up normally and asks me to choose how I want to start up with. I have tried every option and it just comes back to the same screen.

I have put the hard drive in my Dell and tried booting off of it and it still comes to the same thing. I do not have a problem with re-formating and re-installing XP. I just need some information on how to do this.

It is running on Windows XP Pro SP2.

I really would like to do this as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance,
~Evo
 
Blue

Blue

<b>VIP Member</b>
Its really fairly simple. Stick your windows xp cd in the optical drive and turn on your computer and follow onscreen instructions. If the windows instal dont start then you dont have your optical drive as a boot drive in which case you want to hit delete as your computer first comes on to enter bios and set your optical drive as the first boot device and restart.

Edit:

You may not have a windows xp instal cd in which case when you purchased your computer you got System restore disks which you would use instead.
 
Underground_Evo

Underground_Evo

New Member
Well, I got no difference. I couldnt get it to read from the disk.

XP was pre installed on the computer and I didnt get a recovery disk with either of my computers.

My friend gave me a copy (that I tried with), but it didnt work... i dont know if it is because it is an ISO or what? I have the ISO on this computer, and burned it to a CD and tried that,but nothing. I dont know if I burned it wrong or what.

Would it be best to reformat it by my other computer and then re-instal XP that way? I would need pointers on this way.

Thanks,
~Evo
 
J

jbrown456

New Member
you usually press delete when you boot up you pc at the mobo screen. that will bring you to the bios. (hopefully)
 
Underground_Evo

Underground_Evo

New Member
Okay! I got it!

It was as easy as you thought Blue. I thought this would help it too, but I couldn't figure out why it wouldnt load the disk!

I had burned the XP cd using the wrong format. I popped that disk in there and it found it right away. Im re-formatting now. (i had a 160gb HD with about 155gb of junk, well some good stuff, but oh well.)

Thanks for your help guys!
 
Underground_Evo

Underground_Evo

New Member
Well, I thought it was going well. I formatted and was instaling XP Pro and it finishes the part where it copies the files to the instalation folders and says it needs to reboot to finish the instalation, but it keeps coming back to the first part of setup. I have taken the disk out and it says No Opperating System Found.

Any tips?
 
Blue

Blue

<b>VIP Member</b>
yea check that your hard disk is second boot disk and try again. I've seen this happen before and it was because even though the install found the hard drive it still was not set as a boot device. Make sure optical drive is 1st and hard drive is 2nd.
 
Underground_Evo

Underground_Evo

New Member
Ok, I did that and now it comes up "Press Any Key To Boot From CD"

Do I want to do this, or at this point, do I not even need the CD in there?
 
Blue

Blue

<b>VIP Member</b>
you only want to do that for the initial format on file copy, when the computer reboots after that just let it sit and it'll continue on with the hard drive. And yes you'll want to leave the cd in the drive until windows instal is complete.
 
Underground_Evo

Underground_Evo

New Member
Thanks! I'll try it again. I haven't been home all day, so I'll try it tonight

How long do you think it will take before it goes to something other than the black screen with the white flashing text bar?
 
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