[keriann]

I cannot load my Windows XP on my Compaq Presario R3000 laptop. I am now trying to do so from the CD. I get as far as pressing F8 to accept user agreement, then it goes
to "SEARCHING FOR PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS". It just stays like that forever, and does not seem to be able to find it.....Does this mean I have to load a fresh copy and loose all of my files?

This just stinks.......anyone have any ideas?....

I also should mention that I ran a virus scan with my Norton (I booted from that CD and was able to search for viruses.) However, it only took 1 second to scan files- it did not find any viruses, but I'm concerned as to why it only took such a short period of time to do.

I can get an A:/ prompt from here, but I can't seem to get it to load anything else such as when I typed cd then tried to access my C drive it came up as invalid drive specification.....I'm such a dummy when it comes to the technical details....I would appreciate any help from you...thanks again!!

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Hi....you might get a good suggestion here but what I think I would do if I were you, would be to take it to a reliable computer shop and have them do it for you.

I think I am going to have to take my 'tower' in as my pictures are covered in squares...every image, even advertisements.

Your problem is more serious as you can't even connect to the Internet, can you?

I tried to run my Windows XP disc yesterday.
To make the XP disc work, we have to re-boot and right after all 'the words' appear on the screen, there will be one sentence at the top that says to press any key...

Then we are suppose to be able to go through all the 'nexts...I was going to do R for repair but it just kinda 'stopped' .... I had to manually turn off the computer.

That is when I decided to take it in and let an expert FIX it.
Sincerely, Janie

[flowergirl]

Hi....you might get a good suggestion here but what I think I would do if I were you, would be to take it to a reliable computer shop and have them do it for you.

I think I am going to have to take my 'tower' in as my pictures are covered in squares...every image, even advertisements.

Your problem is more serious as you can't even connect to the Internet, can you?

I tried to run my Windows XP disc yesterday.
To make the XP disc work, we have to re-boot and right after all 'the words' appear on the screen, there will be one sentence at the top that says to press any key...

Then we are suppose to be able to go through all the 'nexts...I was going to do R for repair but it just kinda 'stopped' .... I had to manually turn off the computer.

That is when I decided to take it in and let an expert FIX it.
Sincerely, Janie

[bhmax16]

The problem is you thought you were trying to load from the cd yet you weren't! Upon startup your computer won't recognize it has the Windows XP cd in it unless you change your boot order. At the beginning of startup hit F2 to enter your BIOS and hit Alt + P until you get to the page where you can change your boot order. Change it so your cd drive is above your hardrive, then exit. If the computer doesn't sense the cd after exiting it will during your next reboot so just reboot again if it doesn't detect it the first time. You then will come to a black screen which will give you a short amount of time to hit "any key" in order to load from the cd. After hitting a key in order to load from the cd you will come to a blue screen and your computer will load a bunch of files from the cd. You then will be given 3 choices, to either install windows XP, repair windows XP/go to the recovery console, or exit. Choose which you would like to do and follow the rest of the prompts. I would suggest repairing windows so that you don't lose your data, rather than doing a clean install. Hopefully this solves your problems. If it does then go back and enter your BIOS and change your boot order back to the way it was if you'd like. Goodluck