Free computer?!?! Big mess!!!!

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

A friend of ours is going into the military and gave us his computer. He said
it worked but he didn't have any of the disks that came with it. It is a
Gateway and looks like it has hardly been used. When we turned it on it tried
to boot at Windows XP Professional setup and asks for the CD that XP Pro
comes on. Which of course we don't have. On closer inspection we realized
that the computer originally had Windows ME installed on it and someone must
have started to install XP Pro on it and either got an error or they stopped
before setup could finish. Needless to say I can't get what little I know to
work to fix it. I can't get a prompt and it won't even boot in safe mode. I
have Windows Xp Home Edition on the computer that I am currently using and
hoped that maybe the missing files may have been something they had in
common. They start out with I386, like \I386\OEMBIOS.CAT. I am not good
enough to figure this out myself can anyone help????

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Go out and by XP home or Pro..........boot with it in place
format the hd during the install
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp

That way you'll know whats on the thing and wont have inherited someone
else's problems/virus/malware/etc
peterk

--
Never trust a computer you can't throw out the window. - Steve Wozniak
"cghough" <cghough@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:21B0AA83-382E-413A-A842-5A2EF345A450@microsoft.com...
>A friend of ours is going into the military and gave us his computer. He
>said
> it worked but he didn't have any of the disks that came with it. It is a
> Gateway and looks like it has hardly been used. When we turned it on it
> tried
> to boot at Windows XP Professional setup and asks for the CD that XP Pro
> comes on. Which of course we don't have. On closer inspection we realized
> that the computer originally had Windows ME installed on it and someone
> must
> have started to install XP Pro on it and either got an error or they
> stopped
> before setup could finish. Needless to say I can't get what little I know
> to
> work to fix it. I can't get a prompt and it won't even boot in safe mode.
> I
> have Windows Xp Home Edition on the computer that I am currently using and
> hoped that maybe the missing files may have been something they had in
> common. They start out with I386, like \I386\OEMBIOS.CAT. I am not good
> enough to figure this out myself can anyone help????

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

Purchase a "Full Version" of Windows XP and perform
a "clean install".

Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"cghough" wrote:

| A friend of ours is going into the military and gave us his computer. He said
| it worked but he didn't have any of the disks that came with it. It is a
| Gateway and looks like it has hardly been used. When we turned it on it tried
| to boot at Windows XP Professional setup and asks for the CD that XP Pro
| comes on. Which of course we don't have. On closer inspection we realized
| that the computer originally had Windows ME installed on it and someone must
| have started to install XP Pro on it and either got an error or they stopped
| before setup could finish. Needless to say I can't get what little I know to
| work to fix it. I can't get a prompt and it won't even boot in safe mode. I
| have Windows Xp Home Edition on the computer that I am currently using and
| hoped that maybe the missing files may have been something they had in
| common. They start out with I386, like \I386\OEMBIOS.CAT. I am not good
| enough to figure this out myself can anyone help????

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

If you do decide on getting XP, first make certain this Gateway can handle ( is compatible) Windows XP. Find the Gateway model number
and check with Gateway support about it's compatibility.

If this pc had Win Me before, you should be able to use a dos-boot diskette (presuming this has a diskette drive) to boot with, then in DOS, find & view the contents of the root folder of C drive (C:\ ).

IF the pc had no complete setup of XP, and it just had Windows Me, removing the XP boot files "should" restore the capability to run Windows Me.

For the first go-around, REName these files in the root directory (C:\ ) to some other names .
They normally have system and hidden attributes.
boot.ini
bootsect.dos
ntldr
ntdetect.com
pagefile.sys [ if it exists ]
hiberfil.sys [ if it exists ]

--
Maurice N
MVP Windows - Shell / User
-----


cghough wrote:
> A friend of ours is going into the military and gave us his computer.
> He said it worked but he didn't have any of the disks that came with
> it. It is a Gateway and looks like it has hardly been used. When we
> turned it on it tried to boot at Windows XP Professional setup and
> asks for the CD that XP Pro comes on. Which of course we don't have.
> On closer inspection we realized that the computer originally had
> Windows ME installed on it and someone must have started to install
> XP Pro on it and either got an error or they stopped before setup
> could finish. Needless to say I can't get what little I know to work
> to fix it. I can't get a prompt and it won't even boot in safe mode.
> I have Windows Xp Home Edition on the computer that I am currently
> using and hoped that maybe the missing files may have been something
> they had in common. They start out with I386, like \I386\OEMBIOS.CAT.
> I am not good enough to figure this out myself can anyone help????

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (More info?)

perhaps the windows install files are on a hidden partition; I don't know
that Gateway uses this method, but others like Dell & Compaq/HP do.

"cghough" <cghough@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:21B0AA83-382E-413A-A842-5A2EF345A450@microsoft.com...
>A friend of ours is going into the military and gave us his computer. He
>said
> it worked but he didn't have any of the disks that came with it. It is a
> Gateway and looks like it has hardly been used. When we turned it on it
> tried
> to boot at Windows XP Professional setup and asks for the CD that XP Pro
> comes on. Which of course we don't have. On closer inspection we realized
> that the computer originally had Windows ME installed on it and someone
> must
> have started to install XP Pro on it and either got an error or they
> stopped
> before setup could finish. Needless to say I can't get what little I know
> to
> work to fix it. I can't get a prompt and it won't even boot in safe mode.
> I
> have Windows Xp Home Edition on the computer that I am currently using and
> hoped that maybe the missing files may have been something they had in
> common. They start out with I386, like \I386\OEMBIOS.CAT. I am not good
> enough to figure this out myself can anyone help????