Please Help

[Gina]

My mother in law's computer wouldn't boot windows xp so I took a look at it
and finally I reinstalled windows xp. Well it was working fine until I went
and started downloading updates like service pack 2. Well when it needed to
restart to finish the updates it took a long time to load windows so I
thought I could just delete the updates and now it won't even boot up it says
Boot Failure:System Halted. If I put the Windows XP CD in the D drive it will
go up to the set up or recovery part question but when I try to recovery or
even set up now it says that my disc drive is not installed. What can I
do????? Please Help Me

 

[R. McCarty]

Reinstalled -? what type a full or fresh install or a Repair installation.

Drive not detected is either a disk failure or a lack of storage drivers.
(Many newer motherboards use SATA in an AHCI configuration
which Windows XP cannot natively handle ).

You've mostly followed a logical path of resolving issues - but may
have done so many operations that the only resolution is to start over.
Hopefully your relative's data is backed up.

 

[Gina]

I deleted the old and installed it again. The computer is about 6 years old
and my mother in law only uses it to play pogo.

 

[Gina]

What should I do to start over?

I deleted the old and installed it again. The computer is about 6 years old
and my mother in law only uses it to play pogo.

 

[Gina]

There was nothing on the computer when it crashed but windows and the 2
updates and the service pack 2 update

 

[R. McCarty]

I assume there is no personal data or that it's already been removed
by the install you did. You need to boot to the Windows XP CD &
use the Disk Management utility to format the existing partition (C.
Exit the XP Setup, and restart it. Select the partition just formatted
and run the install. Once completed, activate and run the Microsoft
Update http://update.microsoft.com get the Service Pack then reboot
and get the latest Service Pack 3.

Since she only uses it for a specific use, you may want to use Add
Remove programs after install and remove some Windows components.
You can also accomplish this with a tool called XPlite.

 

[Gina]

How do I get it to boot up once I turn it on it automatically says Boot
Failure: System Halted. I try putting the Windows XP disc in but once I try
to install it says that there is no disc drive installed. I put the driver cd
with my computer and I can get it into dos but I don't know any command to
try to get it to install the drive. I am so lost here

 

[Gina]

I can get into the Dell Dimension Setup but I don't if I have anything in
there that will help me get the drive to work

 

[R. McCarty]

You have to modify the BIOS setup, Boot Sequence so that the
order the machine will try to boot to is:
CD or Optical Drive
Hard Drive
Floppy Drive
Network Boot
Once done, and the XP CD is in the drive, You'll see a prompting
that says "Press any key to begin....."