[J0hn]

I'm having trouble installing windows XP. Before I didn't have any problems installing it but this time it doesn't seem to work. http://www.windowsne...s/wxpinstl.html

The above is a link on how to install xp. I did exactly everything on there but it doesn't work. I have a FAT32 and a NTFS partition. I know that before when I rebooted my computer, I didn't see FAT32, there was only NTFS partition. I don't know what my sister's boyfriend did to my computer but he somehow put FAT32 on there. So anyway, blah blah blah.....I deleted FAT32 and installed a fresh installation of windows XP onto the NTFS partition.

After about 2 hours of waiting, everything was all done and when it came to the log on window, I still saw my same old account. I logged in and everything was still there, all of my documents and everything etc.....I don't know why it's still there. I'm sure I did everything correctly. This is weird !

Is there something that I'm not doing right?

Edited by J0hn, 25 April 2006 - 10:07 PM.

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Hi J0hn...

Open My Computer and double click on the C: drive. How many Windows folders are there?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi J0hn...

Open My Computer and double click on the C: drive. How many Windows folders are there?

wannabe1

[J0hn]

Hmmm I knew I should've waited for a response from one of you before doing something stupid. Doh!!!!

I really don't know what the heck I was doing but here's what I did. I put the xp pro cd in then I deleted my old partition which was the NTFS and created another one called "partition1 raw".......yea it was called something like that.

Anyway, I went through the same process as before. After everything was done, it couldn't load up to the logon window. Instead it went to that blue screen which contained a lot of words, I can't quite catch it because it comes up for about 2 seconds then goes away. After that it brings me to the below:

Safe mode
Safe mode networking
Safe mode etc etc......

Last Known Configurations

Start windows Normally.

^I tried "start windows normally and also Last Known Configurations" but that doesn't solve the problem. But I can access Safe Mode. The thing is, i don't know what to do when I'm in safe mode, I'll probably end up doing a stupid thing again.

Anyway, you asked how many windows folders are there in C:drive. Well, I went into safe mode and went into C:Drive and I saw 3 windows folders. They are:

Documents and Settings
Program Files
Windows

I'm sort of running out of ideas here. There's nothing else I can think of except keep trying to reboot the computer and hoping everything would get back to normal, haa. Other then that, I'm just getting paranoid off of this. Is there something I can do to resolve this issue?

By the way, it's night time(11:47pm) and I got to start heading off to bed. I got school and work tomorrow, gotta clear my mind off of this. Be back to tomorrow around 6:00pm.

Edited by J0hn, 26 April 2006 - 12:47 AM.

[wannabe1]

I agree...time to catch some zzzz's...it's almost 1:00 am here...

I think we'll start over and I'll see if I can walk you through the whole thing...start to finish. Sounds like you either ended up with some corrupt files or some kind of hardware conflict.

I'll need to know what kind of disk you're using (OEM or Retail) and what kind of machine you have (Brand name or custom build). A few system specs would be handy, as well.

wannabe1

Edited by wannabe1, 26 April 2006 - 12:56 AM.

[J0hn]

Got off work early, nothing to do haa. So I'll get started......

I'm not sure what "OEM and Retail" means. I just use the regular Windows XP Cd that comes with my other computer which is not a laptop. Anyway, the one that's not working is my laptop. My laptop DID come with extra cds for me to make backups for my programs and I still have them right now, but I don't think they would do me any good because they're just regualr programs, I guess.

Brand name: Gateway laptop

For the system specs, I'm not sure what you mean but I think you mean this:

Intel® Celeron® M
Processor 1.30GHz
1.29GHz
480MB of Ram

^ The above I'm assuming is the systems specs, I hope so. Anyway, I'm currently leaving my laptop on safe mode as we speak. I'm using my other computer to post up my questions.

[wannabe1]

This may be interesting...I hope the OEM product key will work with the regular cd. If not, we may be in trouble. Let's see if we can repair the current installation first...just to be safe. AND let's make sure we've got the product key for the Gateway. Is there a sticker on the Gateway with the key on it?

Let's also take a look at a couple of the recovery disks that came with the Gateway...

Edited by wannabe1, 26 April 2006 - 06:03 PM.

[J0hn]

Yes there is a sticker with the gateway product key.

I have 5 recovery disks.

The first one contains: i386 folder, Preload folder, system32 folder, Fonts, Apps, DRV, inf, WinSxS, setupldr.bin, etc etc....It has a whole lot of folders.

The 2nd disk contains: i386 folder, PRELOAD folder, windows.dat, data1.inp, data2.inp and so on, etc etc.......

3rd disk contains: i386 folder, i386Dist folder, PRELOAD folder, Apps folder, DRV folder, spr folder, driver.cab, data2.inp, data7.inp and so on, etc etc.....

4th disk contains: i386 folder, preload folder, Apps folder, DRV folder, spr folder, etc etc....

I didn't bother looking at disk 5 because I think they're all pretty much the same, I think. But yea, the above is some of the things that's in the each of those cds.

[wannabe1]

Those recovery cd's are the ones we really should use for this... They'll work with the product key and look to contain everything you need to take the machine back to "out of the box" condition. Shall we try that first?

[J0hn]

Haa see I didn't know that. Anyway, yes lets start please

[wannabe1]

Put disk one in the laptop and shut it completely down...don't restart. Then turn it back on. It should boot to the cd and either begin a destructive recovery or give you the option to do so...along with all the associated warnings about losing your data.

Give it a shot and let me know what happens.

[J0hn]

Press R - For standard gateway system recovery option. You will boot into revocery partition or on cd if no recovery partition is found.

Press F - to format drive and perform full system recovery. All data will be lost!
Note: This option will install a recovery partition first then restore the users partition.

Just in case I don't mess up anything, which one do I go for, R or F?

[wannabe1]

You want F for out of the box condition...it'll make it like the day it was purchased.

[J0hn]

^ That sounds great.

Ok it brought me to a screen that says:

"Completing recovery partition"

FYI, everything seems to be copying from disk 1 as we speak(7% already)......Guess it's time to play the waiting game.

EDIT:

Ok now cd 1 came out and it asked me to put cd 2 so I guess right now it's copying everything from cd 2.

Edited by J0hn, 26 April 2006 - 06:54 PM.

[wannabe1]

Yepper....

Right now it's buiding a recovery partition that can be used to recover the machine after a failure...without using the recovery set of cd's. Once that completes it will install Windows on a new partition.

[J0hn]

Disk 2 just got done, now it's time for disk 3.