[Essexboy]

Since this issue appears to be resolved ... this Topic has been closed. Glad we could help.

If you're the topic starter, and need this topic reopened, please contact a staff member with the address of the thread.

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User returned

[Essexboy]

User returned

[magaggie]

Thanks for opening this back up.

I'm attempting to reinstall XP from my disc by using the tutorial link that you provided. The Dell link doesn't work, and when I did a search on Dell's site, I didn't find exactly what I needed, so I just used the general instructiosn in your tutorial.

The screens I'm getting don't match up exactly to the screens in the instructions, so I just want to make sure that I'm choosing the correct options.

I got to the screen about the licensing agreeement and pressed F8 to agree.

The next instruction is different from what I have. It says to select the hard disc and to select "D" to delete partition.

The screen that I have says to select an installaton. The only option I have listed is

C:\WINDOWS "Windows XP Media Center Edition"

My options at the bottom are F3=QUIT R=REPAIR and ESC=Don't Repair

Since I don't want to repair, I choose ESC to continue installing a fresh copy.

Then I get the screen showing existing partitions and unpartitioned space on the computer. It says to select one from the list.

*To set up Windows XP on the selected item, pres Enter.
*To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C
*To Delete the selected partiton, press D.

The partitions listed are as follows:

76317 MB Disc 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

-: Partition1 [FAT] 71 MB ( 62 MB free)
C: Partition2 [NTFS] 71492 MB (42241 MB free)
E: Partition3 [FAT32] 4754 MB ( 4754 MB free)

Is this where I delete a partition? or do I want to install?

Thank you.

Edited by magaggie, 24 January 2011 - 09:29 PM.

[Essexboy]

Select C: Partition2 [NTFS] 71492 MB (42241 MB free) as the partition to install windows to. As this will replace your current windows. You should get the warning about all data being lost when you do this

[magaggie]

After I highlight partition C, do I want to press Enter to install Windows or D to delete partition?

[Essexboy]

Enter to install windows

[magaggie]

It seems to be stalling out at 96%. Is this something that can be restarted?

[Essexboy]

Yes if you reboot it should pick up again where it stopped

[magaggie]

It got past the 96% and was copying files eventually, but there were many files that could not copy. I kept retrying them and they still wouldn't copy, so I would finally hit "escape" to keep going. It only got to 7%, and I was still skipping a lot of files that wouldn't copy. I thought i'd reboot and start over. When it gets to the copying stage, should I just keep skipping files that won't copy? The warning is that windows may not install properly if the files are skipped.

[Essexboy]

OK when you select C drive to install does it give you the option to format the drive ?

[magaggie]

Yes . I had 3 options, and I chose the one shown in the tutorial link you gave me . I believe it was NTFS. I had restated the install last night . When I got home from work 12+ hours later it had reached 58% of the copying files stage. It's at 61% now, but it did get hung up on one file which I skipped.

[Essexboy]

This is a bit weird to be honest, let me know what happens when you get to the end

[magaggie]

It's taken several hours to move just from 61% to 63%, and I've had to skip several files. I'm wondering if I should keep going this way or toss the thing out the window?

[Essexboy]

The disc you have is an OEM version of windows ? We may need to do a hard disc check - what is the make of your hard drive ?

[magaggie]

I am not sure. How do I determine that?