Xp pc problem

shellroc2

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Dec 16, 2011
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18,510
Hello, I awoke this morning, with my xp stuck in the shutting down mode. so I manually shut it down. turned it back on, only to c the black/white screen saying, start in safe mode, etc. tried all choices, but came back to same screen. put windows cd in, and tried to install, repair, to no avail. I had to go into my BIOS and change the drives to read my cd. theres more to tell, but at this point, I cant remember all the steps I took. I can c the dir in my c:\i386\system32. but dont know what I'm looking for. plz help
 

shellroc2

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Dec 16, 2011
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18,510


dont know about cleaning installation, maybe thats my problem.. but,
this is what happens from beginning: (going thru the steps as I type)
cd rom booted up windows cd. windows setup is up on screen. my choices r up on screen, I will pick r (repair a windows xp installation using recovery console.). windows xp home ed setup is on screen, its examining disk config. a black and white screen has appeared. either type exit or pick one of the following:
1: c:\MiniNT
2: c:\I386
I have been choosing #2. It then comes to c:\I386>. at this point I dont know what to do. I typed dir, and it shows 5100 files. (not sure what Im looking for). I do see a hal.dl_ file, windows.cn_, windows.hl_, to name a couple of them. does any of this help?
 

shellroc2

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Dec 16, 2011
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18,510


I already have the data saved when I did the network to another pc. where can I find a clean version of windows? I found microsoft windows xp sp1a, which is the same thing on my cd.
I saw that post, but didnt know what zapped all the partitions meant. I saw hp_recovery on the c drive.
also, when I change my bios back to auto for primary master, it says windows could not start because a file was missing or corrupt: windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
I dont know if I can pull the drive, and, dont know how to put on usb..
Im just one big mess.
 

shellroc2

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Dec 16, 2011
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I am at the windows xp home edition setup, and it is asking me to pick from the following partitions. my choices r:
c: partition1 (HP_RECOVERY) [FAT32] 4998MB (937 MB free)
Unpartitioned space 990MB
d: Partition2 [Unknown} 52619MB (52619 MB free)

I went thru this before, and didnt work. (I remember something about, not enough disk space, create a new partition, and I did. so I really dont know what to do
 
Before Windows tries to load, about when the BIOS screen comes up, it should say "Hit key to start recovery" or something like that. If it does not, boot off the CD, delete all the partitions from the Windows setup when you get to that part, create a new partition, install into that.
 

shellroc2

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Dec 16, 2011
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ok.. have a new partition. it says: E: Partition2 [New (Raw)] 53615MB (53615 MB Free). when I press Enter to install, it says. to install windows on partition, setup must write some startup files to the followig disk: Unknown Disk
however, this disk does not contain a windows xp-compatible partition.
to continue installing xp, return to partition and create a windows xp-compatible partition on disk.
Now what do I do???
 
You should not have a partition E, should be C. Did you delete all of the other partitions? Delete all partitions, create a new one. Should be the size of your full hard-drive. Then it should ask you to format the partition, quick format is good. Install Windows on that. You'll need to download drivers for your computer after you do this to get everything to run also.
 

shellroc2

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Dec 16, 2011
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the "C" partition says, Partition1 (HP_Recovery) [FAT32] 4998 MB ( 937 MB free). is that the one u want me to delete?? the "E" is the new partition that I created. it has 53615 MB free. and when I highlight it, and hit enter to install, this is what comes up:
"to install windows on partition selected, setup must write some startup files to the followig disk:
Unknown Disk"
It goes on to say, "however, this disk does not contain a windows xp-compatible partition.
to continue installing xp, return to partition screen and create a windows xp-compatible partition on disk above"
 


If the recovery partition did not work, wipe out all of them. Then create a single ntfs partition, format it when it asks you to.
 

shellroc2

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Dec 16, 2011
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thank u for all ur help. I found in my desk drawer, 7 cd's with the hp recovery on it. so I used them. it formatted my drive and downloaded windows xp. all is well now. I'm thinking, that the other windows xp cd I was using, was bad. I had lent it out, and maybe they did something to it. again, thanks for all ur help.