Reboot afetr format

Hi Geeks,

first I'd like to say that I'm actually pretty dumb. Just so you you don't wonder about this, or future posts.

My father gave me a computer which he has formatted because he had too many issues with it, but then realised he didn't have the product key to re-install windows.

So, i bought a pirate, oops, I mean fully certified, bnwt, overpriced copy of windows xp on ebay, and tried to install it.

it asks me if i want to format, i say yes in NTSC (i read the format instructions in the FAQ section before posting this). After formatting and installing one set of files, it then says something like "setup will continue after reboot" and counts down, and reboots.

then it just loops, and starts from fresh. i'm concerned, because i changed the boot sequence to "d:, a:, ide" before starting install. (told you i was dumb). now i can't get back into bios to change it back... it just keeps trying to boot from cd.... HEEEELP!!

many thanks if you can,

Andrew

 

If you want to change the boot order just take the CD out. When the PC finds nothing to boot from there it will try the floppy drive and finally the hard drive. But if the hard drive isn't formatted I suggest you need a bootable floppy disk.

 

The product key should be stuck on the computer somewhere.


In my personal opinion you have bought a poor quality copy of windows and you will never get it to boot im probably wrong.

 

Yup, I agree with "Yargwel", just take the CD out, it should install just fine.

If it was a bad Windows CD, you probably would have found out when you first booted from the CD, or during the "file copy phase"

 

thanks for your replies guys, but i already tried that, i just keep getting the dos - prompt to insert the cd...

 

can't i somehow get to dos and run whatever windows setup should be running as the next step manually?

 

The DOS prompt from where? A>, or C> ?

 

I still would have to guess that either a: BIOS settings are preventing the computer from booting from the hard-drive (I know you already checked that, but that is REALLY what it sounds like), or b: Windows XP is trying to resume the setup, but is not reading the Windows XP CD in the drive for some reason.

You could try booting from the Windows XP CD, hitting "r" for recovery console, and see if it dropps you to a command prompt. From there, the "fixmbr c:", "fixboot c:", "bootcfg /rebuild", and "chkdsk /r" commands all MIGHT help (assuming there is no data on the drive making those recommendations; hold off of the fixmbr command if there are any partions left with data on them). Delete and re-create the partition you want to format and then try reformat after running all of these command if it still won't boot into setup after that (maybe the first format was done with some sort of utility not compatible with XP, or there is some sort of drive overlay installed.)

Still sounds like BIOS boot settings to me, though. Is there a submenu for specific hard drive boot, and are you SURE that "hard drive" (or some variation therein) is somewhere in the boot order, and NOT disabled (some boot order screens let you change the order AND enable/disable individual items). Always be carefull making BIOS changes, though, especially if the settings aren't making much sense or if you are being forced to guyess wht they mean.

Sorry if I'm sounding like a broken record here, if we could get the exact wording of the error message, I bet someone smarter than me could come up with something more solid.

Oh, and I'm sure you already checked this, but make sure their is no floppy disks in the 3.5' drive. If your father used a boot floppy of some sort to run the original format, and it is still in the drive, it could be causing some strange prompts when the computer reboots and checks the "a:" drive before the hard drive.

 

Does the following link have any information on what you bought from ebay? More than likely, since you already stated pirated-ebay copy of XP, you will be out of luck, finding any info here.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/coa.mspx