just want to re-install windows xp...

Ok, I'm tapping out and finally asking for some help lol.

Alright my problem first started about 3 weeks ago when my computer picked up a nasty trojan. Can't remember which one exactly cuz I honestly never got that far, but I did narrow it down to somewhere in the winlogon exe or possibly a connected file around it. Thats really beside the point now tho since I decided to just take the loss and re-install windows.

now heres where my problem comes in. First I don't have a normal windows xp install cd, all I have is a practically useless recovery cd that came with my pc. When I boot up with the cd I get to about where it normally asks if I wanna re-install but instead it just crashes and I get the following bsod error message:

c000021a 0x00000080

Heres where I probly screwed up. I investigated this and somewhere somebody had suggested using the recovery console to try and fix it. So I spent another day obtaining this disk and started playing around with it. Somehow I decided to use the fixboot command and after that it refused to let me do anything. No safe mode, no last good config, effectively I don't have an f8 button anymore. It dawned on me today that its probly booting into the recovery partition on my hard drive but its a bit of a moot point now tho cuz yesterday I decided to try reformatting my hard drive and seeing if maybe then I could use my re-install disk and be done with it.

Guess what happened lol? Now when it boots up I get to the bios screen and get this error message:

ntldr is missing press ctrl alt del to restart. :cry

I can still boot up using the recovery console but I can't use it to install windows from it cuz its just the rc its self.

Somebody please for the love of god help me cuz repair shops want 130 bucks to just re-install frickin windows for me and I could jsut go and BUY the damned disk for that.

Oh heres my specs (those that I can remember off the top of my head lol)

emachine w3107 with windows xp home sp3 I think. Sorry its not in greater detail but I can't very well access the machine to tell you anything else lol.

Thanks, Shiro

 

This indicates that the PC is trying to start from the HD not the CD.
Your emachine recovery disk should be bootable. Check the boot order in BIOS and make sure it is set to CD first HD second.

 

Swing and a miss, strike one lol.

it's set up right (just checked). I get this error message after the disk boots.

it goes like this:

boot from cd - it starts reading the cd.
press r for system recovery options - its trying to finish loading from the cd now.

then I get the error about here as it finishes loading that.

This is really irritating, I know I'm gonna end up needing to go out and buy a windows xp install cd just so I can wipe this pc clean and be able to re-install my factory defaults...

 

How exactly is the emachine CD labeled? On the screen for "press R' for recovery options is there any thing else you can do? If you don't press "r" what happens.

***
Not related to emachine disk. What type of disk are you running recovery console from? You said it only contains recovery console as a program. Is it bootable?

 

OK, I got windows re-installed now (way simpler than I'd like to admit).

I now have another problem. After the system was finished re-installing it asked me to reboot, I did this, upon booting back up i get another damned error message...this time it says:

windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
please re-install a copy of the above file. (exact screen message)

I already tried copying the file from my laptop and it still says the same thing. I even tried re-installing completely 3 different times and I still get the same damned message.

I'm seriously about to throw this thing out ><><><

Be honest, you've never seen this much bad luck from one person before huh? lol

 

OK disregard the previous post as I looked up the answer myself lol. As of right now my problem is resolved *crosses fingers*. Now all I gotta do is set everything back up...

My thanks to you sach for lending me a fresh brain lol.

 

Curious...How did you solve the hal.dll error? That is another one of those errors like ntdlr is missing that can be anything. Was it just one more re-install?

***
Consider making a Restore Point now and after you have all your programs setup. Might come in useful.

 

I'm having the same problem right now and I can't get windows loaded back on. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am getting the same 0x000000080 error message.

Thanks

 

Disregard previous post. I was able to get Windows installed successfully back onto the machine.