Don't format that hard drive!

[Memo]

There appears to be a bug in the re-installation process of windows XP.
My computer crashed while I was using it and everytime I tried to get
to the recovery console from the windows xp CD or tried to
reinstall/repair from the CD I got a message about a registry_error
that suggested I turn memory caching off. The memory on my laptop was
fine. I called Dell technical support and they told me I had to
reformat the disk or send it off to some company to retrieve the
contents for me. It didn't make sense to me that I couldn't get to the
reinstall/repair part of the reinstallation without a registry_error
crash. In fact it didn't make sense to me that the installation was
looking at the registry at all before I got to the reinstall If your
planning to overwrite windows anyway including the registry, it should
not be important what is in the registry and the installation CD
shouldn't be giving registry_error messages. I tried reinstalling
windows 2000 over xp. I tapped the F12 key and chose to boot from CD
and then I eventually got to an option to delete the existing windows
installation and I did and then overwrote with windows 2000. At one
point it asked me if I wanted to be on a network and I said yes which
may have been a mistake because at the end when windows was installed
the login window wouldn't let me start windows even with the login and
password I gave. I called Dell and they said that there was no way to
get back in and I would have to reformat the drive. Instead I
reinstalled XP the same way (hitting the f12 key and booting from CD).
I deleted the windows 2000 this time and then installed and this time
when asked did not say I wanted to be on a network. This time the
windows installation worked and I was able to log in.

 

[steam3801]

There appears to be a bug in the re-installation process of windows XP.
My computer crashed while I was using it and everytime I tried to get
to the recovery console from the windows xp CD

Was it an actual Microsoft WindowsXP CD, or was it the Dell factory
pre-configured re-installation disk?

or tried to
reinstall/repair from the CD I got a message about a registry_error
that suggested I turn memory caching off. The memory on my laptop was
fine. I called Dell technical support and they told me I had to
reformat the disk or send it off to some company to retrieve the
contents for me. It didn't make sense to me that I couldn't get to the
reinstall/repair part of the reinstallation without a registry_error
crash. In fact it didn't make sense to me that the installation was
looking at the registry at all before I got to the reinstall If your
planning to overwrite windows anyway including the registry, it should
not be important what is in the registry and the installation CD
shouldn't be giving registry_error messages.

Don't blame WindowsXP when you obviously didn't know what you were
doing (and to compaound things, you contacted Dell for help!! God
grief!!)

You weren't planning to "overwrite" - you were trying to use the
recovery console, which is a part of WindowsXP and therefor requires
registry access.

I tried reinstalling
windows 2000 over xp. I tapped the F12 key and chose to boot from CD
and then I eventually got to an option to delete the existing windows
installation and I did and then overwrote with windows 2000. At one
point it asked me if I wanted to be on a network and I said yes which
may have been a mistake because at the end when windows was installed
the login window wouldn't let me start windows even with the login and
password I gave. I called Dell and they said that there was no way to
get back in and I would have to reformat the drive. Instead I
reinstalled XP the same way (hitting the f12 key and booting from CD).
I deleted the windows 2000 this time and then installed and this time
when asked did not say I wanted to be on a network. This time the
windows installation worked and I was able to log in.

Amazing - since re-installtion by WindowsXP seems straight forward to
most people here who know what they're doing ....

 

[Memo]

First of all I was using a windows xp disk not a dell reinstallation
disk so before you pontificate and insult know what you're talking
about yourself. Second if you had a brain and had read carefully what
I said you would realize that there is a bug in the Windows XP
reinstallation process. The fact that you have installed Windows XP
successfully means nothing since in your case you didn't have a
registry_error message coming up since nothing was wrong with your
disk. To argue that everyone can install xp therefore everyone would
have no problem with this is totally idiotic and stupid since both dell
technicians had problems with it and they have a lot of experience. Go
blow off steam somewhere else steam3801

 

[steam3801]

<snip> since both dell
technicians had problems with it and they have a lot of experience.

Such faith.

Ummm, I really don't think I need to say anymore.

 

[Steve N.]

There appears to be a bug in the re-installation process of windows XP.
My computer crashed while I was using it and everytime I tried to get
to the recovery console from the windows xp CD or tried to
reinstall/repair from the CD I got a message about a registry_error
that suggested I turn memory caching off. The memory on my laptop was
fine. I called Dell technical support and they told me I had to
reformat the disk or send it off to some company to retrieve the
contents for me. It didn't make sense to me that I couldn't get to the
reinstall/repair part of the reinstallation without a registry_error
crash. In fact it didn't make sense to me that the installation was
looking at the registry at all before I got to the reinstall If your
planning to overwrite windows anyway including the registry, it should
not be important what is in the registry and the installation CD
shouldn't be giving registry_error messages. I tried reinstalling
windows 2000 over xp. I tapped the F12 key and chose to boot from CD
and then I eventually got to an option to delete the existing windows
installation and I did and then overwrote with windows 2000. At one
point it asked me if I wanted to be on a network and I said yes which
may have been a mistake because at the end when windows was installed
the login window wouldn't let me start windows even with the login and
password I gave. I called Dell and they said that there was no way to
get back in and I would have to reformat the drive. Instead I
reinstalled XP the same way (hitting the f12 key and booting from CD).
I deleted the windows 2000 this time and then installed and this time
when asked did not say I wanted to be on a network. This time the
windows installation worked and I was able to log in.

You cannot re-install Windows from the Revocery Console. That's not what
it is for.

Steve N.

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Memo

Suggest that you start over with the Dell Recovery CD or whatever process
Dell have provided for you.. unless you use the same version XP CD as is
installed on the machine, you will get spurious errors if trying to repair
an install.. as the other reply stated, many do the repair/re-installation
without encountering 'your' bug..

 

[NoStop]

On 9 May 2006 04:14:58 -0700, "Memo" <[email protected]> - in a
blinding flash of brilliance - wrote:

Amazing - since re-installtion by WindowsXP seems straight forward to
most people here who know what they're doing ....

Most people that "know what they're doing", don't use Windoze.


--
Microsoft has been unable to cope with Open Source except to complain about
it.

http://tinyurl.com/mpoy2

View Some Common Linux Desktops ...
http://linclips.crocusplains.com/index.php

 

[DanS]

To argue that everyone can install xp therefore everyone would
have no problem with this is totally idiotic and stupid since both dell
technicians had problems with it and they have a lot of experience.

By the same token, to argue that it has to be a Win XP bug because the
'Dell technicians had problems with it' is totally absurd.

99% of the 'big' OEM's tech support persons are virtually worthless with
anything that is not on their lookup sheets.

"I called Dell and they said that there was no way to get back in and I
would have to reformat the drive." which is the standard response from a
Dell rep after 10-15 minutes on the phone. That is what their lookup sheet
says.

 

[Memo]

I didn't install windows from the recovery console. I was not able to
use the recovery console for any repairs because the system shut down.

 

[Memo]

No fools should keep their mouths shut

 

[Memo]

When I got the computer from dell it had windows 2000. XP was
installed by me and was not dell and installed fine originally. Then
my disk started showing signs of corruption. I tried fixing this with
checkdisk but could never totally fix it. Eventually the computer
crashed and I tried to repair with the same windows XP that had been
installed originally.

The reason that other people don't have problems reinstalling is that
they don't have whatever problem I had in the registry. My point is
that a problem with the registry should not be interfering with
Microsoft installations

 

[Memo]

It's an XP bug not because Dell technicians have a problem with it but
because what happened during the installation process should not have
happened. The point about the Dell technicians was made because of a
previous posting by steam in which he implied that I didn't know how to
install windows.

 

[Richard Urban]

Suggest that you have problem with your CPU. Turn off the L2 cache (in the
bios), as the message told you to do. Try to load windows again. Note that
the computer will be extremely slow. An install without the L2 cache enabled
may take 4-5 hours. But, if the install continues on past the point where
you got the error message, you will know that you have to replace the CPU.

I have repaired 2 such computers since Windows XP was introduced. And, it is
not a bug in the Windows install process. It is defective hardware.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Bruce Chambers]

There appears to be a bug in the re-installation process of windows XP.

No, there isn't. But that doesn't mean that you might not have a
defective CD.

My computer crashed while I was using it and everytime I tried to get
to the recovery console from the windows xp CD or tried to
reinstall/repair from the CD I got a message about a registry_error
that suggested I turn memory caching off.

The evidence for a hardware failure starts to gather.

The memory on my laptop was
fine.

How do you know that? How did you test it?

I called Dell technical support and they told me I had to
reformat the disk or send it off to some company to retrieve the
contents for me. It didn't make sense to me that I couldn't get to the
reinstall/repair part of the reinstallation without a registry_error
crash.

If you've defective hardware, it makes perfect sense.

I tried reinstalling
windows 2000 over xp.

I'm glad you're no where near any computers I'd have to fix.

I tapped the F12 key and chose to boot from CD
and then I eventually got to an option to delete the existing windows
installation and I did and then overwrote with windows 2000.

Which you could have done with the WinXP CD, as well, had you chosen
the option.

At one
point it asked me if I wanted to be on a network and I said yes which
may have been a mistake because at the end when windows was installed
the login window wouldn't let me start windows even with the login and
password I gave. I called Dell and they said that there was no way to
get back in and I would have to reformat the drive.

True. You painted yourself into a corner, by not noting the correct
password.

Instead I
reinstalled XP the same way (hitting the f12 key and booting from CD).

Which is what you could have done, to start with, had you not been
trying to repair a corrupted installation.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

 

[steam3801]

No, there isn't. But that doesn't mean that you might not have a
defective CD.




The evidence for a hardware failure starts to gather.




How do you know that? How did you test it?




If you've defective hardware, it makes perfect sense.




I'm glad you're no where near any computers I'd have to fix.




Which you could have done with the WinXP CD, as well, had you chosen
the option.




True. You painted yourself into a corner, by not noting the correct
password.




Which is what you could have done, to start with, had you not been
trying to repair a corrupted installation.

IAWBC

 

[Rhonda Lea Kirk]

Such faith.

Ummm, I really don't think I need to say anymore.

No. You don't.

But I just have to add that his post made me laugh until I cried.

Dell "support" is perhaps the biggest joke in the computerverse.

What I have learned is that if one complains long enough and loud
enough, they will offer as much new hardware as it takes to shut one up.

So far, I'm good for a new HDD and a new DVD player. I don't want either
one--because I'm pretty sure what I have is good--but it's interesting
to watch the progression they go through as one rejects each Really Bad
Idea.

I figure by the time I'm done, I shall have been promised an entirely
new computer...in parts.

rl