reinstall XP Home - Big, challenging problem here!

[Bob]

Here's the story.

My wife has XP home. She got a virus or something where
she couldn't access the net and Norton could not download
new files. Reinstalled XP, but it would lock up whenever
it wanted to. I disabled all screen savers and power mgt
utilities. seemed to be ok until she reinstalled
Norton... same problem again. Finally with no Norton the
system would still lock up after she installed SP1.

I've heard of some people having problems with SP1, I
haven't. Anyway, she decided she needed to rip everything
out and format C: drive. Big mistake!!! This is why.

1. She had switched over to NTFS
2. her XP copy is an upgrade only, which means she needs
to show proof of a previous Windows copy to continue.
(the old choice of putting in 98 or ME to prove this and
then switching back to the XP disk is not available to
her- question was not asked)
3. We hauled out our old Win 98SE disk which is a full
version.
4. You guessed it!!!! it loads just so far and keeps
rebooting itself automatically.

Problem- disk is now NTFS which 98SE can't see or use.

I tried fdisk and deleted all partitions then reformated.
NTFS is still there. If I choose in fdisk - largest max
size for logical dos drive... there is no space left on
this 80 gig drive, the rest being NTFS. If I choose No to
largest size, 989SE starts to install and gets to about
25% and does it's first reboot. At this point it keeps
rebooting and rebooting all by itself.

what I need to do is to get rid of NTFS and get it back
to FAT32, but I can't seem to do it. I have an old copy
of pqmagic which offers ntfs and htfs (which I know
nothing about)but not FAT32 when partitioning. It can do
FST32 but FAT32 is not one of my choices... only ntfs,
htfs and Linix32 or something like that.

There has got to be a way to dump NTFS and get back to
FAT32! My pqmagic is version 4.0 - pretty old.

I've tried format c: /s /fs nothing works. Format C:
works but as I said above I have little room left to
install 98SE so I can upgrade to XP again. I wonder if
there are just certain files to load which XP will
recognize as a previous version and therefore will
install. At that point XP should install into the NTFS
file system.

so- either- 1. a few command filoes which XP will see as
previous copy. Or 2. find out how to get rid of NTFS and
back to FAT32 so 98SE will install, allowing me to
upgrade to XP on my wife's computer. Or am I totally off
my rocker and screwed! Bob

 

[Haus]

Hello
Sounds to me like you did not boot from the XP cd, you put the cd in after
the computer was already running and then chose Full Install.

You will need to put the XP cd in then shut the computer down, Then start
the computer, if the HDD is set to boot before the ROM drive then you will
need to change the boot order in the BIOS.

After booting with the cd in you will get a message, Press any Key to Boot
From CD, at that point hit the space bar you will have to be quick for the
message will only appear for a few seconds.

Then it will start copping some files, then at the next ? you will choose

Enter< then >F8< to accept license agreement, then you will be asked to put

in the qualifying cd, put the 98 cd in, then you will be able to choose a
partition to install on or delete the partitions one at a time and create
new one then format to NTFS (not the quick one), then you can continue the
install, at one point the computer will restart and you will see the Press
any Key to Boot From the CD message again (Do Not Press a Key) the setup
will continue.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

--
Hope This Helps
Haus
Not a MVP
Not a MS-MVP
Not nothing just a good ole boy..

 

[Bob Knowlden]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313348&Product=winxp

"How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP"

My only copy of XP is an upgrade version, and I've done a few clean installs
with it, plus a few repair installations. (These were upgrades or
re-installations on the same system; I've never cheated on the one license
per system part of the EULA.) As far as I know, the only difference from the
full version is the need to produce "qualifying media" at some point during
the install. (I use a retail Win98 gold upgrade CD. Actually, as I'm a bit
compulsive, I use a CD-R backup copy of my 98 upgrade CD. An OEM version may
not be recognized.) I have no idea why the "question was not asked"; it
should have been, if there was no OS in the partition, and there should have
been no OS if the partition was re-formatted.

There is one limitation to the disk formatting utilities supplied with XP:
they will not create FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GB. There may be some
work-around using an older version of fdisk, but I don't know whether a
Win98 fdisk would be able to do anything with NTFS partitions. (From what
you say, maybe not. It may be possible to remove the partitions with the XP
CD, though, and then do the formatting with an old fdisk. You shouldn't need
to do that, though. I suggest keeping NTFS for the boot partition.)

I admit that on my most recent installation I used Partition Magic (v. 8.0).
The main use was to format one partition as FAT32, but larger than 32 GB. (I
wanted a single FAT partition so that I could use some DOS-based utilities.
Otherwise, it would have been NTFS all the way.) I used the XP CD to create
and format a couple of NTFS partitions, though.

If I was in your situation, I'd probably use PM to set up the disk. (Version
4 probably won't do, as you've found.) Partition Magic is not inexpensive,
although I've seen it at low prices on the gray market (versions intended
for bundles, but improperly sold at retail).

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Address altered. nkbob is really bobkn.

 

[Menno Hershberger]

Haus has the right idea - should work without a hitch. You will need your
25 digit product key for XP though.
As for reinstalling Windows 98 (which really isn't necessary), if you
FDISKED and removed ALL partitions, then you should have been able to
create a new partition and format it in FAT 32. Don't know what went
wrong there. There were probably 2 partitions... maybe you missed one.
One would have just been a small one that XP puts in there for some odd
reason.

 

[jyd982]

-----Original Message-----
Hello
Sounds to me like you did not boot from the XP cd, you put the cd in after
the computer was already running and then chose Full Install.

You will need to put the XP cd in then shut the computer down, Then start
the computer, if the HDD is set to boot before the ROM drive then you will
need to change the boot order in the BIOS.

After booting with the cd in you will get a message, Press any Key to Boot
From CD, at that point hit the space bar you will have to be quick for the
message will only appear for a few seconds.

Then it will start copping some files, then at the next ? you will choose will be asked to put
in the qualifying cd, put the 98 cd in, then you will be able to choose a
partition to install on or delete the partitions one at a time and create
new one then format to NTFS (not the quick one), then you can continue the
install, at one point the computer will restart and you will see the Press
any Key to Boot From the CD message again (Do Not Press a Key) the setup
will continue.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.a sp

--
Hope This Helps
Haus
Not a MVP
Not a MS-MVP
Not nothing just a good ole boy..


Haus- Danke sehr!!! Vielen Dank!!! We tried this before

and didn't work but tried it again and it's working! I
don't know why it didn't work before. Fascinating!
Anyway, again, thank you very much for your help. I am
jyarddog on MSN chat. If you do FS9 I fly around at props
Unlimited. If interested I can give the IP on MSN chat.
Bob

 

[Haus]

Hello
You are welcome.
Good Luck

--
Hope This Helps
Haus
Not a MVP
Not a MS-MVP
Not nothing just a good ole boy..