[Tru Techie]

no. what happens is i get something like caldera ds-dos or something. then a whole bunch of processes run. like succesfully found USB or w/e, failed to something or other Firewire. Devices MCD001 or w/e, found 2 devices. then there is ntfsread.exe, and fat32read or something like that.

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are any cables loose? Can you get into the computer BIOS? Does it see the hard drive??

[coffeedrinker]

are any cables loose? Can you get into the computer BIOS? Does it see the hard drive??

[Tru Techie]

yeah it sees the hard drive. i can go to C: then dir, and shows it. i dont see how the wires would be loose......but ill check all possibilites.

[Tru Techie]

no, no loose wires.

[coffeedrinker]

Wires loose or a card not set can cause problems with start up. Not making a full connection.

If it sees the hard drive, then you should be able to insert the XP disk, boot from CD Drive and install it.

It could be the motherboard. You can download an utility from the hard drive maker or look on the DELL site for drivers....dunno anything else to try.

Keith might know

[Tru Techie]

where is keith? or that other mod that helped me.....all i can remember about him is he had a sketch of a nerdie guy, and his title was a desperate man for desperate times.

[Retired Tech]

Boot the PC and keep tapping the delete key, possibly F2 until it enters BIOS set up, load BIOS defaults, reset the CD ROM Drive as the first boot device, press F10 to save, type Y and press enter with the XP CD in

There isn't a disc in any of the other drives?

[coffeedrinker]

Tru Techie

I found these sites, you might like to checkout. I googled the errors you got and came up with them.

Is this an used computer you working on? Think someone put Linux on it.

http://motherboards....p...asc&start=0

http://www.tfproject...h...2391&page=3

Give you something to read for a while.

[Tru Techie]

k, the cd rom was to boot first in sequence. then i saved changes and exited, it restarts, and it still says starting Calera DR-Dos. and CD is in.

[coffeedrinker]

check this out

http://www.google.co...amp;btnG=Search

[Tru Techie]

What the...? its an operating system in itself?

do i get rid of it or wat?

how do i remove it? i cant find any help on that

Edited by Tru Techie, 31 July 2006 - 07:25 PM.

[coffeedrinker]

Have to ask the guys over in Linux, I haven't a clue.

sorry

[Retired Tech]

Caldera-DOS is usually the start of a bootable disc

Run this, then change the disc for the XP CD and press enter, look for press any key

To completely erase all data on the drive(s)

Download Boot and Nuke

Using Boot and Nuke

Use the autonuke option, which could take 8 hours or so, then when you run Windows set up, check it is creating a RAW1 partition on C, if the drive letter is different, restart the PC and it should default to C

[Tru Techie]

keith? come save me! oh now i remember the name, it was GERRYF! he helped me a lot.

[Tru Techie]

wait so, i install this boot disk, run it, for however long it will take "8 hours", then after its done i switch to xp cd?