Verifying DMI pool data NTLDR is missing winxp

Donnie

Don't mix my instructions with anyone elses'. Follow one or the other.

Lady_K

Sorry I am trying to follow yours but just wanted to be sure if I needed to do these things via the ubuntu disc, I'll go through it all again as I have obviously misunderstood some of it

Donnie

No, there is something stopping the laptop from booting normally. so we are trying to get it to boot normally so that we can enter Windows. If we can do that then we can then do all the other jobs that need to be done. if it fails, we can use Ubuntu to retrieve as much as we can before running a clean install.
Carrying out the Ubuntu instruction raised the spectre that you could misunderstand and install to the hard drive, possibly overwriting important information.
But we hope you haven't installed it.

Donnie

If you really can't fathom any of this, you can use a Windows XP disc to access the Recovery Console or to do a Repair Install. It would help to know if the version of XP Home is Retail or OEM.

Lady_K

Not been able to get to daughters yet due to various things but I want to try and help her get it sorted either later today or tomorrow so I've got to get the stuff together before I go to take with me.

Have to admit I'm all over the place with this and I just hope it wont be as hard as it first appears.

Hope I'm right in putting the test disc on a cd to take with me to try that.

The only xp discs we have at the moment are an xp pro cd that says it was given with a new pc on it and it shouldnt be copied or lent to anyone.

The xp cd that she has now at her house is for the other dell machine and that says xp home only meant for dell pcs, that includes all the drivers for the dell machine so I'm guessing that wont be any good.

I don't understand about partitions if I come accross anything like that and I'm still unsure about how to save any drivers from the faulty machine if I need them but I realise the main thing at the moment is trying to repair it first to get in it to do the rest of it.

Really sorry about seeming so dumb about all this, I do have problems understanding things but I do still try regardless. I don't like to give in on things. If there is anything else I need to get to take with me just in case we need it or if one thing doesnt work but another might please let me know

Thankyou for your help and patience so far I really do appreciate it

We don't know if the faulty pc is oem or retail all we know is it was made up by someone who worked in a school who sold it to one of the teachers and he sold it my daughter a while later as he went abroad

bat999

Good luck with that.
At least the baby-photos are safe.:)

Lady_K

At my daughters now, we have put the win home cd that came with the old dell system just on the offchance that it might work. It started loading things then asked if I wanted to instal or repair we chose repair but it asked for the administrator password, Ithought windows home wouldnt need one. We had 3 guesses which were wrong and it said three attempts had been made press enter to reboot. We rebooted and now when pressing any key to start by cd nothing happens

Donnie

It is clear that most of the solutions are beyond your current capability, so I've deleted some of my posts.

Sounds like it's time to use the Recovery Console. But use the XP Pro disc if it Pro that is installed, not just any disc you may have found in a skip.

Lady_K

Thankyou, yesterday we lost internet connection with the laptop I took with me and after trying the xp home cd on the pc and not being able to get by the administrator password we just had to get the old dell sorted out so she could at least get on the net untill the faulty pc is fixed if it can be fixed at all. The old dell needed an ethernet card and more memory, it had never been updated on anything and had 4 viruses.

Doing that now gives us a bit more time to try fixing the faulty pc tower without so much pressure as shes on the net with the other in the mean time.

Does it sound like the faulty pc is likely to have xp pro installed seeing as it asked for an administrator password when we tried the xp home cd?

I don't think I can use the recovery console though can I as I will be asked for the administrator password again? which I don't have unfortunately

espresso

Lady_K wrote: »

I don't think I can use the recovery console though can I as I will be asked for the administrator password again? which I don't have unfortunately

Have you tried just hitting Enter?