How do I re-install Windows?

[ReFLeX]

There may have been threads on this before, but I want to get my sob story in. A few days ago I was cleaning out my hard drive and then started a defrag. Then I left it running for a few hours. I came back and turned on the monitor, and the computer was frozen showing the screensaver. I don't know if I had turned the screensaver off, whether that would have been helpful, but I couldn't do anything but turn the power off. Or I guess I could have waited a long time. Regardless, I turned it on the next day and Windows (XP Professional) sat at the loading screen with the little blue bars for an hour, clearly not moving. Now, it says Windows did not start properly and gives me options of safe mode, and "last working configuration", none of which work. I took it to the dealer (PC Cyber) and he simply assumed that I wouldn't be able to fix the error. He gave me two options, let him wipe it and install Windows or I could pay him 50$/ hour to extract all the data, which he said would be several hundred by the end of it. Or, he said, you wipe it and install Windows yourself. Which I'd love to do and have successfully done before. Why I can't remember how it works now, I don't know. I put the XP disk in and it starts looking for a boot disk in the A: drive. Which I don't have. What's supposed to be the next step?!

 

[asthmatic camel]

Assuming you have a floppy drive on the PC you're currently using, download the boot files from Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];310994 here and try using those.

Otherwise, you could try to alter the bios settings by pressing F8 during the machine's attempt to boot, and changing the boot sequence so that your CD drive (probably Drive D) is first, and then using your installation CD.

Edited to add the link doesn't work unless you copy and paste it into your browser window. Sorry, missed that.

 

[a_unique_person]

Don't wipe it, and reinstall Windows. Just put in the boot CD, and take it from there. You want to do a repair, but not using the console.

If it doesn't want to boot off the CD, go into the BIOS and make sure boot off CD is the first option.

 

[jimlintott]

AS is right you have to go into the machine's BIOS and tell it to boot the CDROM first. It will be listed under something like boot order. Various motherboards use different keys to get into BIOS. The DEL key is common but early after turning it on most will prompt you with the key for entering the BIOS.

I would get a live Linux disc to boot first to check out the condition of your Windows drive. It may not be that bad. You might easily save data and may find that a reinstall rather than a fresh install will work and save your data.

I would probably try to reinstall first to see what happens. If that fails you'll have to wipe the disc and start fresh.

(Of course as a Linux zealot it behooves me to point out that you could just install Ubuntu which is free, runs very well. Doesn't require defragging and won't trash itself while doing normal maintenance. )

ETA - Yes, try AUP's recommendation. He knows Winders better than I.

 

[BobK]

I normally re-install windows in the reverse order I took them out.

 

[Orangutan]

Another slightly more complicated option is to install a new (bigger) Hard drive as you are installing windows again. Then you can use your second drive as a slave and get any salvagable data of that.

It's probably all the local computer guy was going to do.

Hard drives are relativly cheap. And that way if your old hard drive is dying you won't be faced with this problem again any time soon.

 

[asthmatic camel]

Um. Just reread this. $50 per hour? While he sits back and does nothing? Can we have a money for old rope smiley?

 

[Oleron]

Um. Just reread this. $50 per hour? While he sits back and does nothing? Can we have a money for old rope smiley?

It's all about value for money, have him climb up on your roof and clean your guttering while Windows re-installs. Problem solved.

 

[ReFLeX]

Thanks for the advice guys, but my options seem to be limited here. The first screen has two things at the bottom. Press [TAB] to show POST screen which goes to the "safe mode", etc screen like it already does. The other is Alt-F2 for "EZ-Flash" or something like that, which gives the following message: Please enter a name for new BIOS. Which it then doesn't matter what I type in, it says "device not ready" because there is nothing in the A: drive. So next I'm going to try to make a boot disk from asthmatic camel's link...

ETA: Oh. Boot disks.

 

[ReFLeX]

?!?!?!?!??!

What!! The first file it wants to download is 4 MB! How is that supposed to go on a boot disk?

ETA: Aha! Reread the thread and the DEL key got me into BIOS settings I think. Working on it now.

 

[ReFLeX]

Err. Changed the boot order. I think. The drives are named weird things like "Legacy Floppy" and ATAPI and I'm not even sure which is which. Neither did changing the order seem to help. The "EZ Flash utility" is still looking in the A: drive which tells me it must have been some disk I was supposed to get but probably never did or that I'm supposed to be doing something else. If I just let the computer start it goes right back to wanting to start safe mode...

 

[Flashman]

Press DELETE to enter set up then scroll down to Advanced Bios settings. Press ENTER.

Scroll down to BOOT ORDER (I think.) Press ENTER and a pop up window will open with a menu. CDROM should be there somewhere.

Save changes and exit. Make sure you have the installation CD in your drive.

Good luck, ReFLeX.

 

[Beerina]

Don't wipe it, and reinstall Windows. Just put in the boot CD, and take it from there. You want to do a repair, but not using the console.

If it doesn't want to boot off the CD, go into the BIOS and make sure boot off CD is the first option.

I am going through exactly the same thing on my home computer. A child had started Rise of Nations, the computer locked up, and now it only gets halfway through a boot before it spontaneously reboots. Safe mode has the same problem. I've reseated all the major connectors, RAM, everything except the processor itself, so I'm assuming it's the HD now.

My install CD does NOT offer a "repair" option -- I can tell it to blow away the entire "C" partition, or exit. Since I have some irreplaceable pictures of dear departed grandma on it, I've taken it to work to hopefully mount it on my work machine and copy the pics, then go about blowing it away if necessary.

...and I'm crossing my fingers as it has these weird SATA connectors instead of the old-fashioned giant ribbon cable connectors. If my work PC doesn't have that, then I don't know what I'm gonna do -- maybe buy a cheap 50 gig and install Windows on that, then mount the old one as a secondary drive.

 

[Beerina]

Um. Just reread this. $50 per hour? While he sits back and does nothing? Can we have a money for old rope smiley?

In the mid '80's, I took a Mac in for repair, and it was $75/hour. I also had some monitor people tell me they didn't repair the monitors -- they could put in a new $600 module, a few hundred off the purchase of a new $1000 monitor (which was 19" tube, 10 years ago.)

I found an old-school TV repair guy, and he found some loose solder joints. $70 later, it was fixed!

The problem is the new stuff has "repair people" who are only trained to replace entire modules. Presumably this is "cheaper" than wiggling things until the loose joint is found. And at $90/hour, it probably is.

 

[ReFLeX]

I was so close. I figured out the weird way my BIOS settings worked to change the boot sequence and was all ready to go. I formatted the partition since the repair console wasn't doing anything helpful, and that took hours but when it was done, I started a fresh install. Of course, this couldn't work out. Here's the new error message:

SMART Failure predicted on Primary Master: Maxtor 6E040L0

And it flashes "WARNING": back up your data immediately.

I'm assuming that's my hard drive saying it's fried. Time to take it in again?

 

[asthmatic camel]

I was so close. I figured out the weird way my BIOS settings worked to change the boot sequence and was all ready to go. I formatted the partition since the repair console wasn't doing anything helpful, and that took hours but when it was done, I started a fresh install. Of course, this couldn't work out. Here's the new error message:

And it flashes "WARNING": back up your data immediately.

I'm assuming that's my hard drive saying it's fried. Time to take it in again?

I'm afraid it looks that way. Fortunately, as Orangutan says, hard drives are relatively inexpensive now. They're also easy to install yourself, so you might want to follow his advice if you wish to save a few $$

 

[Ripley Twenty-Nine]

I'm afraid it looks that way. Fortunately, as Orangutan says, hard drives are relatively inexpensive now. They're also easy to install yourself, so you might want to follow his advice if you wish to save a few $$

Seconded.
To offer a bit of extra advice, if you ARE going to buy another Hard Drive, make sure it's not a Maxtor, which is the manufacturer of the Hard Drive that's failed on you. I have heard so many horror stories about Maxtors, I wonder sometimes how they're still in business.

I've had Seagates, Western Digitals and IBM drives, and never had a problem with them. They're usually a few dollars more than Maxtors, but to avoid what you're going through again, it's worth it IMHO.

 

[a_unique_person]

I am going through exactly the same thing on my home computer. A child had started Rise of Nations, the computer locked up, and now it only gets halfway through a boot before it spontaneously reboots. Safe mode has the same problem. I've reseated all the major connectors, RAM, everything except the processor itself, so I'm assuming it's the HD now.

My install CD does NOT offer a "repair" option -- I can tell it to blow away the entire "C" partition, or exit. Since I have some irreplaceable pictures of dear departed grandma on it, I've taken it to work to hopefully mount it on my work machine and copy the pics, then go about blowing it away if necessary.

...and I'm crossing my fingers as it has these weird SATA connectors instead of the old-fashioned giant ribbon cable connectors. If my work PC doesn't have that, then I don't know what I'm gonna do -- maybe buy a cheap 50 gig and install Windows on that, then mount the old one as a secondary drive.

That is what a lot of manufacturers are doing now. You could buy a windows OS disk, that does give you the options. SATA is easy, but if you buy SATAII, and you have a SATA 1 hardware, you apparently have to jumper the SATAII to run in SATA 1 mode.