Bootleg XP

[Carol]

I have a friend, who had some guy from his work build him
a PC. One day, my friend sends an error report to MS. So
now, my friend's PC won't work. The "Guy" comes over to
re-install XP ugrade from ME. Everytime he tries, the XP
install will get to a point, then gets an error message
that says it can't read file so and so. We confront the
guy and he admitted to XP being a bootleg copy! Needless
to say, my friend goes out the next day to get a REAL
copy of XP upgrade. To our surprise, EVEN the REAL copy
wouldn't work! It's been formatted, low level formatted,
BIOS has been flashed, battery popped out. Is there
anything that can be done? It's a shame that someone nice
has to suffer because of some shady charactor.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Start over and follow this procedure:

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

1. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

7. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| I have a friend, who had some guy from his work build him
| a PC. One day, my friend sends an error report to MS. So
| now, my friend's PC won't work. The "Guy" comes over to
| re-install XP ugrade from ME. Everytime he tries, the XP
| install will get to a point, then gets an error message
| that says it can't read file so and so. We confront the
| guy and he admitted to XP being a bootleg copy! Needless
| to say, my friend goes out the next day to get a REAL
| copy of XP upgrade. To our surprise, EVEN the REAL copy
| wouldn't work! It's been formatted, low level formatted,
| BIOS has been flashed, battery popped out. Is there
| anything that can be done? It's a shame that someone nice
| has to suffer because of some shady charactor.

 

[John E. Carty]

I have a friend, who had some guy from his work build him
a PC. One day, my friend sends an error report to MS. So
now, my friend's PC won't work. The "Guy" comes over to
re-install XP ugrade from ME. Everytime he tries,

the XP
install will get to a point, then gets an error message
that says it can't read file so and so.

I've seen this exact same symptom a few times where a bad RAM chip was the
culprit

 

[Guest]

I tried booting from the CD-ROM, and it was
working...asked me if I wanted a clean install, or
continue with the previous xp install. I said clean. It
loaded some files then the license agreement popped up
and said press f8 to agree, which I did, and it never
went any farther. After I paged down, at the end it said
EULAID:XPSP1_RM.1_HOM_RTL_EN
I kept pressing f8, but nothing. Now what?
Carol