WON'T START OR FORMAT

[Shirley S.]

Hi, I have tried everything to get into my computer, but
just can't do it. When I try ANY of the boot up options,
safe mode, command prompt, etc. my computer just reboots
itself everytime. I tried booting off the Win XP Home CD
& reinstalling Win XP, but it comes up with a blue screen
that it is a fatal error & won't continue. At this point
I'm so upset that I would give anything just to be able
to format drive C & start fresh all over again. I can't
get Windows to give me a format option though even from
the bootable CD. I can't get far enough without it
giving me an error & then restarting. How do I get this
drive formatted?? Is there a special key I could hit at
startup or some other option that isn't mentioned so I
can format this damn thing? I've been awake for 2 days
now trying to deal with this, but have had no luck. Any
help would be great appreciated... thanks.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi, I have tried everything to get into my computer, but
just can't do it. When I try ANY of the boot up options,
safe mode, command prompt, etc. my computer just reboots
itself everytime. I tried booting off the Win XP Home CD
& reinstalling Win XP, but it comes up with a blue screen
that it is a fatal error & won't continue. At this point
I'm so upset that I would give anything just to be able
to format drive C & start fresh all over again. I can't
get Windows to give me a format option though even from
the bootable CD. I can't get far enough without it
giving me an error & then restarting. How do I get this
drive formatted?? Is there a special key I could hit at
startup or some other option that isn't mentioned so I
can format this damn thing? I've been awake for 2 days
now trying to deal with this, but have had no luck. Any
help would be great appreciated... thanks.

Formatting your hard disk is easy, although I suspect that
your PC might have a hardware problem. Here is how
it's done without using a WindowsXP CD:

- Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
- Run fdisk.exe, then delete all partitions. You will, of course,
lose all information currently stored on the disk.
- Boot the machine with your WinXP CD.

 

[Haus]

Hello Shirley
Windows XP comes with all the tools to format and install.
You have to boot from the CD, when you see the message To Boot From CD hit
any Key the press the space bar, you have to be quick the message will only
be there for a few seconds, this is the only time you do this during the
install.

Boot the computer and enter the BIOS to check the Motherboard, if you can
enter the BIOS then the MB is alright.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
While in the BIOS check to see if the HDD and all of your RAM is seen.
Check to make sure the CD-ROM is set to boot before the HDD, if not you will
have to change the boot order.

Here is a link that will give you step by step instructions for installing.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

If this does not work then the first thing I would do is remove a RAM chip
one at a time and repeat to check for bad RAM (if you have more then 1
stick), then I would remove the PCI cards (ie: phone modem, Ethernet, sound
card and so on) this will tell you if you have a bad card.