Can't Get C Promt When Rebooting and MY XP Reinstall was Interupte

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Guest

Greetings - I was running XP Pro and tried to reinstall the original OS. When
I got to the point of entering my product key, which I had done before
successfully, it would not recognize it. After many, many different attempts
I contacted MS support for assistance. After lengthy troubleshooting,
confirmation of my original product we were unable to rectify the problem.

I cannot reboot in any of the safe modes or another option available. My
only thought is to reformat the hard drive and stat from scratch. My only
thought to do this is from a C prompt, but I dontt know how to interupt the
booting process to acquire one.

No, I did not make a recover disk...Which has been a painfully valuable
lesson I have learned.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am at my wits end. Thanks
much, Bill
 
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 the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

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 all 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. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, make sure XP's Firewall is enabled:
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx

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

8. 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.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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

:

| Greetings - I was running XP Pro and tried to reinstall the original OS. When
| I got to the point of entering my product key, which I had done before
| successfully, it would not recognize it. After many, many different attempts
| I contacted MS support for assistance. After lengthy troubleshooting,
| confirmation of my original product we were unable to rectify the problem.
|
| I cannot reboot in any of the safe modes or another option available. My
| only thought is to reformat the hard drive and stat from scratch. My only
| thought to do this is from a C prompt, but I dontt know how to interupt the
| booting process to acquire one.
|
| No, I did not make a recover disk...Which has been a painfully valuable
| lesson I have learned.
|
| Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am at my wits end. Thanks
| much, Bill
 
Genius! Thanks so much!!! I tried everything except the Esc key. It worked
like a charm and is doing exaclty as I wanted. Thank you so, so much Carey!!

Carey Frisch said:
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 the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

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 all 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. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, make sure XP's Firewall is enabled:
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx

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

8. 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.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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

:

| Greetings - I was running XP Pro and tried to reinstall the original OS. When
| I got to the point of entering my product key, which I had done before
| successfully, it would not recognize it. After many, many different attempts
| I contacted MS support for assistance. After lengthy troubleshooting,
| confirmation of my original product we were unable to rectify the problem.
|
| I cannot reboot in any of the safe modes or another option available. My
| only thought is to reformat the hard drive and stat from scratch. My only
| thought to do this is from a C prompt, but I dontt know how to interupt the
| booting process to acquire one.
|
| No, I did not make a recover disk...Which has been a painfully valuable
| lesson I have learned.
|
| Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am at my wits end. Thanks
| much, Bill
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