Oops, she fdisked XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Star
  • Start date Start date
S

Star

Hi,
My neighbor's computer is driving us nuts. She has a fairly new copy of
XP
Home. Her child was playing a game when suddenly the blue death screen
appeared;
we researched the stop error and in safe mode tried "Last Known Good
Configuration".
To make it short, it did not work. So we check all resolutions on my
computer, even
"Verified that the hardware is listed on the Hardware Compatibility List
(HCL) of the
Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs"; it was. So that night she decides
to wipe her
hard drive completely (fdisk), then clean reinstall with the XP restore CD.
*Then* she gets
the "Setup cannot find the End-User License Agreement (EULA). Setup will not
continue."
She starts another clean install with the cd to change from fats to ntfs .
Reinstall was going
well until we reach the step to choose the partitions; empty blue space
appears for about
15, 20 minutes, then FINALLY we get the partion options and change from fats
to ntfs. At
some point after this, we get the "ntrdl.file is missing, Press any key to
restart". We research
Base Article - 314057 which says "causes -This behavior occurs only if
Windows 95,
Windows 98, or Windows Me is installed on a large-capacity drive that uses
the FAT32
file system". We tried a third time. Same deal.

Damn it. I give up. She has driven me totally nuts. I HAVE MADE
umpteen million
trips back and forth from her house to mine, I'm hungry and now even iller
because among
hunting her a fix, the rest of my time spent on my computer is has been
having to download
YET ANOTHER DAMN PATCH OR AV UPDATE. Her kids are mad because Mom
"tore up the computer", and her husband has determined that computers are
the gateway to hell.

We have found 2 resolutions. We have read that we need to (1) set BIOS
to boot from
CD, or (2) fdisk can erase the hard drive as well - that she should have
left it alone, and that
she cant ever reinstall XP from THAT cd, and that she will have to buy
another copy of XP.

Any ideas on this before I shoot or slap her?

Thanks a million,

Star
 
Star wrote:
We have found 2 resolutions. We have read that we need to (1)
set BIOS to boot from
CD, or (2) fdisk can erase the hard drive as well - that she should
have left it alone, and that
she cant ever reinstall XP from THAT cd, and that she will have to buy
another copy of XP.
Click to expand...

Set the CD-ROM as the first boot device in the BIOS. Boot from the CD. Setup
will being. Delete all existing partitions and create at least two new ones.
Format both partitions NTFS. Install Windows XP to the first partition and
have her use the second for storage. This way, if the OS becomes corrupted
beyond hope, a fresh install is that much easier.
 
Sorry for the intrusion, but how can you format both partitions? Everytime
I create
two partitions and format the first one, XP starts loading and there's no
way to stop
it in order for format the second partition.
 
marcusD said:
Sorry for the intrusion, but how can you format both partitions? Everytime
I create
two partitions and format the first one, XP starts loading and there's no
way to stop
it in order for format the second partition.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I was wondering the same thing. (sorry for text, damn cut and
paste).

Star



 
S.Heenan said:
When you get to the screen to create or delete partitions, create two. Then
highlight "C:" and choose to install XP to that partition. When it's
finished installing, you can format the other from either Windows Explorer
or Disk Management.
Click to expand...

Uhmmm.... it will not install. Still says the "ntrdl.file is missing,
Press any key to
restart".

Star
 
Star said:
Uhmmm.... it will not install. Still says the "ntrdl.file is
missing,
Press any key to
restart".
Click to expand...
Why are you doing this anyway? Why don't you just have her take the box
to a good local computer repair shop and have them install Windows for
her? And why are you messing about with floppies? Recovery cd's and XP
cd's are all bootable. It sounds to me like she has a Compaq or an HP
or eMachine type of machine and the hidden partition that makes the
recovery disk work has been damaged. If this is the case, she should
contact Compaq or HP or whoever made the machine and talk to their tech
support about how to reinstall Windows with the recovery disk.
Otherwise she'll have to buy a retail copy of XP and it will be too
complicated a job for either of you to handle, what with tracking down
the proper hardware drivers, etc.

Malke
 
Roger that, many thanks Alex.

marcusD said:
Sorry for the intrusion, but how can you format both partitions? Everytime
I create
two partitions and format the first one, XP starts loading and there's no
way to stop
it in order for format the second partition.
Click to expand...

You do it as part of a reinstall of the system after booting the XP CD
direct. Enter Setup, and after the license agreement take New Install.
When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete *both* the
current partitions and make a new RAW one to be formatted at the next
stage. You can also make a second one - but I would leave that until
the system is up and running.

Then Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer Management, select Disk
Management and look lower right for the graphic of the drive. r-click
in the Unallocated space and Create partition, continuing to Format it
 
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