XP restore

[Guest]

I have an emachine computer with XP home edition. The computer is highly
infected with viruses and will not load windows ( the windows splash screen
comes up but then it continuously reboots). The OS was updated to SP2. I want
to reload/ restore the windows XP. Also, I have replaced the original CD
drive with a Kypermedia 52X . When I boot the computer with the restore
disk in it ,the CD looks like it is reading it ( the CD drive light comes on
) but it does not run . I downloaded the windows XP ( no SP) boot disks (
floppys) from microsoft and tried to boot from them. When it gets to disk #3
, the message “ pciide.sys is corrupt “ appears and the boot-up aborts. How
can I reinstall Windows XP on this machine ? Do I need to reformat the drive
? I don’t care about losing data or files. I just want a clean start !

 

[Robert Moir]

I have an emachine computer with XP home edition. The computer is
highly infected with viruses and will not load windows ( the windows
splash screen comes up but then it continuously reboots).

This alone is not indicative of a virus problem, in fact it would tie
closely to one possible problem that the error below suggests.

The OS was
updated to SP2. I want to reload/ restore the windows XP. Also, I
have replaced the original CD drive with a Kypermedia 52X . When I
boot the computer with the restore disk in it ,the CD looks like it
is reading it ( the CD drive light comes on ) but it does not run .
I downloaded the windows XP ( no SP) boot disks ( floppys) from
microsoft and tried to boot from them. When it gets to disk #3 , the
message “ pciide.sys is corrupt “ appears and the boot-up aborts.

This could indicate a problem with the new drive, or cable.

It could also be down to a problem with computer memory.

 

[Guest]

I could see the new drive stopping the restore CD , but what about the boot
floppy’s in the other drive ? It read the first 2 disks and then aborted on
the 3rd. Could the disk or data I downloaded be bad ? How can I determine if
it is a memory problem ?

 

[Robert Moir]

I could see the new drive stopping the restore CD , but what about
the boot floppy’s in the other drive ? It read the first 2 disks
and then aborted on the 3rd.

Good point, I forgot about that.

Could the disk or data I downloaded be
bad ?

Possible... but if you have had the CD for ages and downloaded floppy boot
disks from a credible online source then we're pushing the odds there a
little.

How can I determine if it is a memory problem ?

Assuming you can't swap memory around with "known good" stuff then try this:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp


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