Interrupted XP install is now 'resident' on my computer

This is a tough one to describe. I had an interrupted install on one of my machines. Something slowed down the install routine and I quit it.

Now, right after POST there is some resident content even with other drives installed which insists on continuing the failed install.

I shut power down at the wall.

I reset the CMOS.

After POST there is plain black and white text screen which asks what to star offering two possibilities which are both my XP.

Trying to quit this I am offered to start windows normall at which time it all
begins again.

There is no working OS so starting in Safe Mode won't work.

It appears that my test disks are not damaged and still have their content.

I was able to test boot these on the computer where I'm writing.

But how can I clear from a XP setup routine where there is no cd in the drive
and I can't get to the CD drive to do something like a low level format?


What can be being held in memory? Would pulling the memory work?

This last I will try while waiting for a response.

Or perhaps resitting the CPU?

This has been really shocking. I don't know which way to turn on it.

 

Here is the solution to that one.

It was the memory.

After pulling the sticks and putting them back the problem was over with.

I had never seen anything like that and freaked. This could happen to anyone during a power outage doing the same routine.

 

So, all those new cuss-words you'd invented didn't help? Blast. I was hoping they'd work for someone! They never do for me, either, but I do get more practice at cuss-word development when sometimes a simple unplug-and-replug process succeeds. I usually wish the design-engineers would install a "Screw this up" button that I might have touched or pressed, and then I could simply retouch it to unfoul things.

 

Thanks for reply.

The how and why of this is still puzzling. A chat friend says that memory cannot do this (hold some partial Setup install info that has had power interrupted.

Would removing the battery work and be simpler than trying to get at memory sticks? This old board required that mem be put in before the cpu heat sink assembly. There is a microscopic clearance where I simply popped one stick up a fraction with the release levers. I never did get it out.

Complete power drain seemed to be the answer. But are there any simpler
methods to accomplish power drain such as a battery pull? CMOS was reset to no effect.

 

I doubt any one answer can be the be-all end-all solution. Every tech will have head-scratching mysteries. They might blame their own carelessness, or some other humanoid's. Sunspots, clouds that moved too fast, spy-plane contrails, or working on the equipment in front of grassy knolls.

Do you know about DeGaussing? The Gaussian Effect is caused by electrically-charged particles that magnetize metals they pass 'thru'.

Ships at sea have their metal hulls 'magnetized' over time, simply by traveling thru water and its mineral compounds, and thus become more 'charged' and better targets for mines. When you're driving your Destroyer into Pearl Harbor, you can always stop by and have crews wrap huge, monstrous cables, all over your ship, round and round, and let it be 'de-Gaussed' in a few days. Just think - you might have considered a battleship, too, eh?!! You're so lucky to only have a DD!

But signals-thru-cables - like broadband, like network cables, like monitor and keyboard cables - all of those get magnetized over time as well. Sometimes a simple Unplug-and-Replug is enough to discharge whatever static-y buildup exists.

This MAY have been what you did when you even minorly disconnected the RAM from its slots. More than likely, somewhere in the hard-drive's 'opening' or start-up sectors, your phantom partial-install resided.

 

My face may be red on this one. I just picked up a spare HD and that Setup routine was on it. It's like it was infected by it.

To cure the problem I am using HDD Guru Wipe Tool. That has been effective to really clean disks of stray information from other installs across my two motherboards.

(That share thingie at screen bottom is still bothering me at posts here. Can Hijack This take it out? Just wondering.}

 

Most drive manufacturers have a wipe-utility as if a specific drive really needs it (which was perhaps true in the '80s MFM days or perhaps the early IDE days (into '90s).

But there's also a product called DBAN that can wipe out drives with a thorough "1" and "0" encoding. Just be sure your machine has a weekend to do it - it can be a longer-than-overnight process. "That's why they call it thorough!"

(I think my DBAN runs from a bootable CD, by the way... just be certain you correctly identify the drive to 'cleanse' if indeed you're booting a DBAN disk. That "C Drive" can look mighty tantalizing for someone who's not paying attention! I think I usually open up the case and disconnect every drive and only connect my one Target-To-Wipe drive so I can't make that error.)