Uninstalled the wrong thing.....can't fix it.(NOW FIXED)

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Is it possible to borrow a copy of xp, (the same edition as yours), off someone else and try that one.
If you've formatted then I don't think the Recovery disc will work.
Its just a suggestion but something that I would try.

Hope this helps

aliasojo

Just done a search on the web and came across the same thing Chippy. Although I have seen many reasons for it, including a site that says a possible hardware fault could be the cause.

Setup would not load 24 files, mostly system files and a few dlls. I have the names of them but I don't think it'll do much good. Windows cd is genuine and came with machine. Also borrowed friend's to try but had same effect.

Last message came about when I left the pc at the screen where you choose which partition to delete etc. I didn't click on anything but when I came back to pc, black and white biosinfo message was displayed.

Pc is formatting again at the moment. I don't expect setup will work any better this time around, however.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
When I got my Dell, it came with a restore/recovery disc and also with partitions, very strange setup, which I didn't like.
So I took off partitions, so then I only had 1 hard drive, then I reformated and installed xp.
When it asked you which partition to delete, did you see how many partitions you had? and what size they were.
.

aliasojo

2 partitions.

1st one said:Inactive <os/2 Boot Man 3506MB (635MB free)

2nd one:C:Partition 2 [NTFS] 282667 MB (282087MB free)

Unpartitioned space 8 MB

I have never touched the first, it's always been C I have deleted,and created and installed on.

This time around, every file that setup couldn't load last time...installed ok. Only this time it couldn't load services.exe, which I believe is needed for start up/shut down.

So I still don't have windows working. Going to reformat once more tonight and if it still doesn't work, I'll need to arrange for repair I think. I don't understand why it's so erratic.

GreenNotM

Aliasojo

Check the setting in your bios - is the processor speed correct ? the memory speed and timings ?, the disk type. If you have a "load defaults" option try that and save the changes.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
If all else fails I would try this
If you are prepared not to use the recovery disc again, I would reformat the bootman drive and install xp to that, if you do this you will not be able to use your recovery disc again, because this is the drive that Mesh has put all the system programs on and your drivers.
Perhaps you could backup this drive, if you havent already, to disc, just in case you need it again.
Advantage of this, is if you can install xp on this drive, and nothing else, then you can do a backup of this drive, and then if anything every goes wrong again your safe and you could do a clean install.
I would then install programs etc on to your c drive.
Just a suggestion, as I can't think of anything else, dont know why your having these problems with a simple install.
Sorry

aliasojo

I'm fairly sure the bios settings are correct, Green.....but I'll double check shortly. Since I am now at the 'clutching at straws stage', I have switched the pc off and I'm letting it cool just in case there was a heat issue. (Probably completely irrelevant but I read somewhere that sometimes an overly warm system can be the cause of many weird and wonderful happenings. )

Like I said...straws time. I have formatted and re-installed windows at least a dozen times before (on this machine as well as others) with no issues and this has me stumped.

I can't help but feel there is a connection with my original problem where windows couldn't 'see' or load the extra windows components I was trying to install.

wonderful.....the thing that worries me about that idea though, is the thought at the back of my mind that says if windows can't load the correct files to the C partition.......would it be any different to any other partition? Lord knows.....it hasn't exactly been working as it should so far. I'll keep that idea in mind though. might be worth a last ditch attempt before I ship it off for repair. :beer:

Thanks for all the input guys.

aliasojo

Oh well......tried the bios defaults setting and couldn't get the windows disk to run at all.....(but I did end up with a lovely motherboard advert screen I hadn't seen before :rotfl:. Have to laugh as the alternative might get my keyboard wet!)

Anyway, got the run settings changed and got the windows cd to load again, so it's doing (it's last!) format as I type. I don't hold out much hope tbh so I think I'll log off now and go drag the pc box down from the loft.

Thanks for trying to help, all.

aliasojo

Just thought I'd update....sat up unitl after 2am this morning trying to get the pc to work and eventually it did.

The only thing that I did differently was when the format screen appears, you get two choices....(normal full) format and quick format. I always format using the full long process but this time I opted for the quick version and the install worked.

This doesn't make any sense to me, but then again neither did windows behaviour earlier.

Updates are downloading just now so everything should be back to normal shortly.

T4i

I had a similar problem some time ag trying to install XP.

It got to the same files on CD and said 'could not read', really thought it was my cd drive or cd so tried different ones, did it again.....

Turned out I had one stick of dodgy RAM. Replaced it and wooooooooosh.