Posted by tranquil
Yesterday when I went to turn my PC on it acted a bit funny.
Everything was fine to start off with but then...
I've got XP-Pro and when I clicked on my account to log in the screen went black! After a while a message came up saying it couldn't find Windows, so I wacked my Windows CD in to innstall it again but it wont accept it.
I changed the hard disk but with the result.
I can't remember the exact words of the message but it told me that one of the files on the CDwas destroyed?
I thought that CD was ment for use several times if anything like this happened. I've used the CD once when I innstalled XP.
Can someone tell me what is going on here?
Posted by crowing
i dont have a clue but my sympathies for you and your dead computer...
Posted by masseur
Ok first thing the to do is to reboot and as soon as the pc looks like its starting (you see bios info or the company name of your pc etc) keep pressing F8 until you get a boot menu.
Here there are two choices useful to you.
First try the "Last known good configuration" and see if that works for you.
If not then try safe mode and do a system restore to a date, presumably yesterday or prior, that you know the system was working perfectly.
System restore has fixed me up a few times!
btw. you can use your windows CDs as many times as you like so don't worry about that and since you cannot write on the windows CDs the files cannot possibly be destroyed.
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...Unless I'm very much mistaken
[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2003-08-20 10:06 ]
Posted by tranquil
Great, thanks mate.
I'll print this off and give it a go tonight.
(Stupid machines...
)
Posted by fijbert
maybe ur CD is scratched?
also dont register with microsoft with the same key too many times
it wont let u
worst comes to worst
use the key everyone uses.. but DONT REGISTER
Posted by masseur
If the cd was scratched the pc would report an error reading the disc, not that a file is corrupted.
_________________
...Unless I'm very much mistaken
[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2003-08-20 11:05 ]
Posted by tranquil
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Eh...? What key is that?
Btw, I never register anywhere...
Posted by fijbert
@masseur
not true
I've suffered the "file is corrupt" or "file is missing" from Windows installation CDs before
and then I looked at the CD and it was scratched very slightly
also, another time, I encountered that problem, took out the CD, cleaned it a bit and it was just cuz that area of the CD was stained
and the CD worked fine afterwards
Posted by masseur
Well I don't understand that since a cyclic redundancy check is performed on read so it would fail to read rather than read incorrect data. I'm not a complete expert on this so won't argue with what you say.
regarding the windows xp activation, you can activate it as many times as you like as long as you do not change the configuration of the pc substantially. Here is the microsft page describing all this.
In my experience even if you do change the configuration substantially it may not let you activate automatically but a simple phone call to microsoft can resolve that issue.
Posted by masseur
So... how did you go last night with this problem?
Posted by tranquil
Nothing worked!
Obviously the CD is knackered...
I tried everything you, and a few others, suggested with no luck what so ever.
I basically gave up in the end...
So I decided to leave the old hard disk alone and load XP on to the new empty hard disk. Everything worked fine till about half way trough. Full stop!!! Can't install one of the sys files.
Got to go out and buy myself a new Windows XP CD today.
Thanks for the help thoug, and if you got any bright ideas before lunch I'll be happy to give it a go. My PC is wasted anyway.
Posted by masseur
Sorry to hear that. If the disk is really faulty then microsoft should replace it for you free of charge. I had a similar problem with an Office XP disk.
edit: although thinking further... if its an OEM disk that came from the pc manufacturer then you may need to go back to them instead.
did your pc not come with recovery disks? these are usually disks that completely replace the hard drive as it was when you bought the pc without the need to actually install windows or anything. Sony do them on laptops and desktops and I think quite a few other manufacturers do too.
_________________
...Unless I'm very much mistaken
[ This Message was edited by: masseur on 2003-08-21 08:29 ]
Posted by wrath000
@tranquil: It won't be a violation of a lincense agreement to borrow someone elses CD to install as long as you use your own key.
Have you tried copying the i386 directory to the harddisk and then starting the install from DOS using winnt command?
[EDIT]
The "can't find windows" error can be caused by incorrectly edited boot.ini file. You can boot into recovery console (using the installation CD), and edit the file (located C:\boot.ini) If WinXP is installed on the first disk/first partition there should be a line like this:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
Note, that while there is no editor in the recovery console, you can use the console commands to redetect the system, or edit the file on another machine and copy it using a floppy disk. You can also copy any missing operating system files from the CDrom (they will be automatically decompressed)
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If I had all the answers, I wouldn't have any questions. [ This Message was edited by: wrath000 on 2003-08-21 09:02 ]
Posted by tranquil
I am about to turn potty! It can't find the modem now! Everything else works perfectly well apart from internet!
Anyway, thanks for all yoyr help guys!
Posted by masseur
Glad to see you are sorting it all out... almost.
Modem? whats that? thought they were all in a museum now!
Posted by HellFire
If you are still having problems installing XP after you got a working copy it could me your ram programs write to different addresses so some progs will work and some wont that’s why when you install XP when it writes to the f**ked one you get that message if you got 2 ram sticks first earth yourself then take 1 stick out try it and if that still don’t work try the other 1
If you need a different XP key then get a keygen from one of the peer 2 peer progs
Posted by tranquil
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Sorry... ISDN-card.
@HellFire
Everything work problem free apart from my internet connection.
The problem now is to get the machine to find the hardware for the ISDN card.
Posted by Cytech
you are talking about ISDN card... what type of card? PCI, PC Card or?
Posted by wrath000
If you PC can't find the ISDN card, I wouldn't rule out hardware damage. Most, if not all ISDN cards are Plug-n-Play, so as long as it's not damaged it should be found by Windows even if Windows does not have the correct drivers (in which case it will be installed as "unknown PCI device" or something like that)
Posted by tranquil
Guys, thatks for all your patience and support.
I'll get a new ISDN-card tomorrow. I've given up on the thing! They are not that steep anyway.
Any spesific ones any of you can recomend?