repair/install winxp problem

[Wade]

My little brother's computer now fails to launch winxp
due to a recent windows update that screwed up some .dll
files. I'm trying to repair his windows installation but
I'm having no luck. His cd-rom drive fails to be
recognized in the boot sequence so we're having to do
things the hard way. We've followed the directions for
booting off of the six winxp floppies but I've found no
information on what to do from there. After we get to
the sixth floppy the computer hangs for a while and then
we are sent to the command prompt. What do we do from
here? How do we get from the command prompt to the winxp
cd? I've already tried calling Microsoft but they want
$35 for this last little bit of information...

 

[Ken Schaefer]

Can I suggest going back to the CD booting way (since that's much less
pain).

You'll need to go into your computer's BIOS. In your Basic IDE settings set
all channels (IDE channels 1 & 2, primary and secondary) to "auto-detect"

That should find your CD-ROM drive when you exit, and you should then be
able to boot off the CD (make sure that the CD-ROM drive is ahead of the
hard disk in the boot order)

You'll want to select the "repair" option.

Cheers
Ken


: My little brother's computer now fails to launch winxp
: due to a recent windows update that screwed up some .dll
: files. I'm trying to repair his windows installation but
: I'm having no luck. His cd-rom drive fails to be
: recognized in the boot sequence so we're having to do
: things the hard way. We've followed the directions for
: booting off of the six winxp floppies but I've found no
: information on what to do from there. After we get to
: the sixth floppy the computer hangs for a while and then
: we are sent to the command prompt. What do we do from
: here? How do we get from the command prompt to the winxp
: cd? I've already tried calling Microsoft but they want
: $35 for this last little bit of information...

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Wade,

It's just as easy to boot a regular startup floppy and run the winnt.exe
file in the \I386 folder.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Wade]

This just doesn't work. I'm actually starting to think
we have some faulty hardware, I was able to make it to
the command prompt and some very weird stuff was
happening. For instance when trying to copy certain
files to temp directories the copy would fail halfway
through. After 20 attempts at a copy I was able to get
it to complete. Anyway, now our winxp boots like normal,
makes it through the startup screen, and then goes
absolutely beserk. The hard drive goes nuts, the monitor
goes blank, and then we get some "unknown hard error"
message. Perhaps we have a faulty memory module?

 

[Alex Nichol]

My little brother's computer now fails to launch winxp
due to a recent windows update that screwed up some .dll
files. I'm trying to repair his windows installation but
I'm having no luck. His cd-rom drive fails to be
recognized in the boot sequence so we're having to do
things the hard way. We've followed the directions for
booting off of the six winxp floppies but I've found no
information on what to do from there. After we get to
the sixth floppy the computer hangs for a while and then
we are sent to the command prompt. What do we do from
here? How do we get from the command prompt to the winxp
cd?

Put the CD in the drive - if you have not seen any message indicating a
drive letter for that you may need to experiment by giving
Dir X:\setup.exe
for all letters X from C on up until you find a response. Then give
CD X:
for the appropriate letter
SETUP