Re: Total nightmare with XP remove & reinstall

XP is NOT based on DOS, it's based on NT.

You cannot boot from a Win98 boot disk and Format C: when using XP and
achieve a useable harddrive for XP installation. You would be trying to
install over DOS.

When booting from OTHER than a full copy of XP for installation, you have to
install your own CD-Rom driver so the machine can read the drive.

Etc, etc, etc.

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DaveW
<thomas@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ch5993p1un4pk4uqj2uq3bl0ou2h8rdtbd@xxxxxxxxxx
I posted the other day about a friend not being able to keep IE
loaded, where it vanishes....
She is running XP Home Edition
After trying everything immaginable to fix it, I looked at her
computer overall and determined that aside from a small amount of
music and personal photos, and her saved email, there was nothing else
worth saving on the computer. She agreed, so we copied all those
things to a flash memory stick and I proceeded to remove and reinstall
XP. Little did I know what a nightmare that would become.

I should note that I absolutely hate XP. I run Win98 on my main
computer and WinME on my spare one. Both work fine, in fact work
great. 98 lacks the ability to read flash memory sticks (without
installing drivers), so I just dump them on the ME machine and
transfer them on to one of my own sticks that I have drivers for.

Anyhow, getting back to the nightmare with XP. First off, how in the
heck one is supposed to remove XP is beyond me. I tried to delete the
windows dir. No such luck. Went to the C: prompt and typed FORMAT
C:. It would not let me do it. I tried a few utilities in XP, none
of them worked. Tried the disk clean thingie in her System Mechanic
software, which kept asking me to insert floppies but never killed the
files on C:. After a few hours of that BS, I went and got a Win98
boot disk. Set the CMOS to boot from a floppy, and booted. Took
FDISK and removed the non-dos partition. At this point all data was
gone on the hard drive.

I rebooted, ran FDISK again, created a Fat32 partition, and formatted
it from Dos. We now had a usable hard drive. At this point I figured
it would be a simple matter of reinstalling XP (Home Edition) from the
original CD that came with her computer. WRONG AGAIN......

After another reboot, I set the CMOS to boot from the CD.
The CD would not start, and after numerous trys, it kept looking for a
Novell metwork, and would hang there, (at one point for over a half
hour before I shut it off). Another reboot and once again, I kept
getting "cant read the CD" errors, over and over and over. At this
point I decided the CD itself must be defective, and called a friend
who uses XP home edition. Went and got his CD, and found the exact
same problem. At this point I decided the CD drive was bad, so we
proceeded to go to Walmart and buy a cheap CD/DVD drive and replace
the drive.

With the new drive installed we were ready to try again. This time I
booted from the DOS floppy, went to the CD, and typed SETUP.....
I began cussing loudly when I determined that unlike Win98, you can
not run SETUP from a dos prompt. (why in the hell not, is beyond
me)??? OK, I reset the CMOS once again to boot from the CD and it
immediately began to analyze the system, and appeared like it was
going to finally install XP. We got to the EULA hit the F8 key and it
said "preparing to install XP". I hit enter and got a message "Can
not read the CD, hit enter to try again". I hit the enter key a dozen
or more times, removed and replaced the disk, same thing. Over and
over and over..... OK, I figured that the disk was bad and switched
back to her original disk. Once again, it did everything as before,
got to that part where it says "preparing to install XP". I hit enter
and got a message "Can not read the CD, hit enter to try again", and
once again it did that over and over....................

That did it, I was pissed......
I went home and got a copy of XP professional that I have simply for
times when someone needs my help getting something fixed. This is not
a legal copy, and I know it, but like I said it's just for repair
purposes of XP professional where there is already a licensed copy
installed. Otherwise it sits there unused because I would not use XP
if it was a matter of life and death (I hate it that much). Oddly
enough, XP pro began the install, and worked fine all the way up to
the part where the registration key needs to be typed in. Since I
dont have one, I aborted the installation there.

Just for the heck of it, and after 7 hours of this bull***, I took
that dos disk, ran FDISK and FORMAT to clean everything off the drive,
carefully checked all the cable connections on the drives and
motherboard (especially the CD drive ones). Made sure the RAM sticks
were tight, and rebooted. Once again I went to install XP from the
Home Edition disks. I tried both of them again, and both times the
same thing happened. When it gets to the part where it says
"preparing to install XP". I hit enter and get that same message "Can
not read the CD, hit enter to try again".

I gave up at that point, which was over 8 hours since I started this
nightmare. The owner of the computer even told me to remove that new
CD drive so she could return it to the store and tole me to toss the
computer in the garbage (whe was more frustrated than me). I told her
that I would leave her monitor, keybd, mouse and external stuff, and
take the terminal home with me.

I now have this piece of junk sitting next to me. Tomorrow I am going
to install Win98 on it, and see if that works (I bet it will).
But why in the hell wont XP home edition install? It's a legal
(original CD that came with the computer), and the other copy that I
borrowed is also a legal copy. The CD drive simply dies when it gets
to the install part........

Has anyone ever run across this sort of thing?

I am not a technician, but I can generally fix most computer problems
and people often ask me to help them. Even though I hate XP, I can
usually fix it. But this one seems beyond hope. I didn't get paid
for my 8+ hours of frustration, but the way it looks I now have a 2ghz
computer that (all I can assume) has a problem with the mobo that
causes the CD drive to fail. But it has a usable hard drive if
nothing else, and possibly some usable RAM. It's not like I really
want the thing, and she's a friend so I'd rather get it working for
her, but she insisted I throw it in the garbage, so I brought it home.

What the f**k is with this thing?

And just so you know, the install CDs are the FULL VERSION.

Somehow I still think it's XP and not the computer itself. Guess I'll
find out when I install Win98 on it, and maybe, just for grins, I'll
see if I can find a reg. key and see if it will do the complete
install of XP pro, just to see what happens.

Final note: I really did not get all frustrated like the owner of this
thing, but I will admit it really added to my hatred of XP. Just the
fact alone that you cant type SETUP from the dos prompt is enough to
make me want to punch some top executive from Microsoft in the face.
I'll stick to Win98 and/or WinME until I cant use it anymore. That's
when I'll give up computers and join the Amish. Horses and buggies
seem so much more relaxing...... Rather than InSTALL windows, I'll sit
in STALL with my horse and look out the barn WINDOWS.......

Tom


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