Reinstall xp

I have a problem where my daughter tryed to install a cd with printer drives on it and the pc crashed. She had the XP cd and tryed to do a reinstall and it didnt work. Now the only thing this pc does is boot to the black screen where it shows different options such as boot to safe mode and so on. I have tryed to go back to the last known setting and run scans but it just goes to the black boot screen?
Dell Dimension 2400 with XP home

Thank you for any info

 

Watch the boot screen for what key is needed to get into setup, that will get you into the bios. Use your arrow keys to move around, you need to go to the section for boot sequence. Once you get there change the CD to be the first to boot from, put the CD in and reboot that should get you going.

Phil

 

Does safe mode work? If it does you may just be able to do a system restore.

 

As Phil says.

Also my favourite is by Fred Langa:

XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option, no loss of DATA or settings and a squeaky clean XP.

 

Thank you for the help. I have tried safe mode and nothing. I have tried bios and nothing. I just may install a new hard drive.

 

You say you have changed the boot menu to the CD and it still did not work, you may bet right in your thinking. I change my drives every three years some do it more often if yours in in that or and older time frame that would be a good move.

 

What do you mean BIOS and nothing? DO you get the BIOS screen or just the black screen with windows options?

I think DELL is F2 to enter BIOS and F12 to set boot order. You want to hit it immediately and repeatedly as soon as you hit the power button.

 

Hi Plodr

Just want to let you know that not all 2400 come with the recovery partition. My father got one I believe in early 2003 (maybe earlier) and it came with an OS installation CD and a driver CD but no recovery partition. It did have a tiny DELL diagnostic partition that would look for hardware problems if it found no bootable device. I don't know when they moved to the recovery partition but I think it was after 2003.

 

Good info guys had to subscribe so I can save it for a future reference.

 

Guys thank you again for all the help but im at a loss. I have just tryed the ctrl+F11 and no luck there. This just keeps rebooting to the black screen where it has
safe mode
safe mode with networking
safe mode with command prompt
last known good config
start windows normally

Then it counts down from 25 seconds and reboots back to the same screen over and over.

 

I think I jumped the gun.. I went to the link sent to me on here http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897

and it is working so far but not finished yet.
Again thank you all that has helped me with your info.
Scott

 

Thank you for this link.. VERY HELPFUL!!

 

Jumped the gun again.. It loaded xp again and rebooted to the black screen that I talked about in another post.. I think I should just trash this thing LOL

 

Are you concerned about saving data on the drive or is a reformat and fresh install an option for you?

 

Just a fresh install would be fine..

 

You were able to boot from the CD if you followed the instructions for the repair so a fresh install should not be a problem.

It is basically booting from the CD and following instructions. On screen seven you will choose to install a fresh copy. You should get a few screens asking where you want to install Windows. I would choose to delete the existing Windows partition (it will probably be the largest partition). Then choose to use free space for the install. Choose full format to NTFS rather than quick format to NTFS.

I'm sure there are screen by screen guides out there, I just couldn't pick one up straight away. If you have any problems post back and I'll help find a guide.

You obviously have your OS CD from DELL, do you have your driver CD as well? You will need the driver CD or access to the web from another computer and a CD burner or flash drive to get the driver files from the second PC over to the Dell (only if you don't have the driver CD.

 

installed the driver cd and it goes to a repair test and it does pass everything?

 

Did you do the fresh install of XP?

 

The more we throw this around and the always end has me thinking it could be as simple as bad ram, if it has no place to load the start items bingo!

 

Give this a shot, Unplug your computer, push the power button and hold for 20-25 seconds. Clears the Nvram.Them Plug it up and turn it on and press the F12 over and over like its gonna save your life!The 2400 was a year before the recovery partion, thats why it didn't work. ANY dell Windows will work on ANY Dell, just not Vista or Win 7. So if you need a disk, any dell OS will do.Are you ok will removing parts? Like Ram? Cards? Pull and reseat them for the heck of it. Don't sound like bad MB or Ram to me (I work with LOTS of Dell's)but it cant hurt. More like a XP problem. MBR? Anyone think the same? Ever do a recovery with the XP disk?

 

Chris I tryed that and nothing? I reloaded the xp cd and got to the screen where I can repair and it froze?
thank you for the help.

 

Yes did that and now the thing is frozen

 

I am still thinking it is a software problem. But I am still unsure of what has been done. Did you complete a fresh install or are you saying you started a fresh install and the computer froze at the screen where it is asking you if you want to repair or do a fresh install? Did you get to the point of deleting the existing Windows partition?

 

Heres what ive done.
Last night I could load the xp cd and run it.
I went to repair and it ran fine and when it finished and rebooted ( itself ) it when back to the black screen where it has safe mode / safe mode with networking and so on.
Today I get some time and try a fresh install and then it freezes at theblue setup screen where repair and new install is.

Now im running a test ( the extended one and almost finished) I will see if theres any errors.

I also unpluged it and pushed the power button and held for 20 seconds and no luck.

( Test done and had 1 error )
ERROR code 1100:0222
MSG The system Bios reported a "bad command" Status in responce to the commandcode 02H

 

Just found the on the net as far as my error..

1100-0222
diskette.mdm
Diskette Drive Seek Test
The BIOS did not recognize the command code %2.2Xh.
BIOS
Floppy Drive
Motherboard

((Doesnt have a floppy drive on this system..))

 

What diagnostic did you run? Was it for HD or RAM?

This should help you get rid of your floppy seek error http://forums.techguy.org/4970361-post12.html. After you disable the floppy while in BIOS set your Boot Order to CD first then motherboard.

Retry booting from XP CD and see if you get past the screen you were on when it froze last time.

 

Just done that no luck there.

Only option I have there is ( not installed or 3.5 inch , 1,44mb )
It was on 3.5 and tryed both ways

 

OK, we are jumping around here and just confusing things. I have reinstalled SP on my Dad's Dell 2400 and it is not this complicated.

No disk in the drive and you boot what are the screens? (I'm guessing something about floppy seek error and F1 to continue then the safe mode etc. screen)

Xp disk in drive. Do you get Hit any key to toot from CD...? If you boot from CD do you get how far into the setup?

 

Ok start up with cd in drive= black screen with safemode ect.
cd doesnt run.

Start up with out cd same screen.
I hit f12 to get to load the xp cd and can run it all the way till I get to the repair/install area. Then it will freeze.


Thank you for being so patient and tryin to help with my problem.

 

Try putting the CD in reboot, hit F12 during the Dell screen. You should get a list of boot devices, arrow down to CD and hit enter.

You should boot from the Cd and get the install screens. You want to forget about any repair options you are going for Setup XP. Let me know the last screen that works for you and basically what the options were. I'll try to match it up with either the screens from the article you originally tried or this one http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp.

 

This is what ive done

Went to f12
Boot menue
picked #3 IDE-CD ROM device
Showed Windows setup ( blue screen )
At the bottom showing setup is loading files
Setup is starting windows

Welcome to setup
To setup press enter
To repair press R
To quit press F3

Then it freezes and cant go any further.

 

Is your keyboard USB or PS/2(round plug)? Any lights lit on the keyboard?

 

Key board is round plug and only light that is on is the numbers lock.
When I ran the test one of them was the key board and it passes.

 

The keyboard sounds fine. I was just checking because occasionally USB keyboards aren't recognized by Windows setup.

I think maybe we should do as OldPhil had suggested and suspect the RAM. You are booting OK from CD loading the temporary OS for installation and then having problems. Do you have more than one RAM module installed? If so try removing one and booting with just the one module. If only one try removing it and reseating it making sure it is firmly in place. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2400/en/sm_en/memory.htm

 

since my last post ive messed with takin the 3.5 floppy drive (which it doesnt have ) and under f2 turned it off. I am now able to install the xp cd and have 30 mins left. Lets see what it does.

 

Pulled the memory sticks and then tryed 1 no luck. XP finished loading and rebooted back to the black screen where safemode ect is and justs keeps reloading to that screen every 30 seconds. I put the dell drivers cd in and loaded it and running the diagnostic portion now.

 

When you began the install did you choose to delete the existing XP partition? I want to make sure we are dealing with a fresh install not just somehow pointing to the old Windows partition with the original problem.

During the install you had the copying files then a reboot then 37 minute install then a reboot to the black screen with safe mode?

 

Im not really sure what she did when it messed up. Is there anyway I can get to the partitions to see anything?
As always I cant thank you enough for trying to help me with this problem..

 

Hi again,

I trying to figure out why we keep getting the same safe mode etc. screen when we are supposedly doing a fresh install. When you were doing the last install did you get screens asking where to install? And questions about deleting or formatting partitions for the new install? I really need to know if you have formatted the drive before/during the last install.

***
Partition Wizard is available as a bootable CD. It would allow you to see and/or delete existing partitions. You would download the ISO file and then write it to CD as an image file using imgburn or similar burning software. Then boot from the CD to see existing partitions. I believe it can explore a partition to see existing files but I am unsure what good that will do.

 

From reading what you have tried and done so far, it seems that you could have a corrupted MBR. This is something that a reformat will not correct as the format command doesn't overwrite the existing MBR. If there is no data, pictures, etc. that you wish to save, then I would recommend zeroing the hard drive with the hard drive manufacturer's software or this, http://www.majorgeeks.com/Dariks_Boot_and_Nuke_d4596.html.

The file will contain an iso file that can be burned to CD with this, http://www.majorgeeks.com/ImgBurn_d4870.html. This will produce a bootable CD that will zero your hard drive to an as manufactured state, minus the wear.

Do this only as a last resort as you are receiving excellent advice from other members!

 

It has never asked anything like that that I can recall?
Another question .. The cpu im on now is the twin to the one im on now ? Is there anything I can copy from here to put in that if my burner is still working?
I dont care about saving anything on the messed up cpu just get it working again.

 

Ok ive made it a little further.
Im at the screen after repair.
Black screen says
Microsoft Windows XP recovery Console
1:C:\windows
Which windows installation would you like to log onto
(to cancel,press enter)?
Then a box after the question mark...
Im not sure what to do from there??

 

you can try entering a "1"
It will ask for a password which would be the administrator password. If you hadn't set one leave it blank and hit enter.
At the C:\Windows> prompt you could try chkdsk /r

 

Ok I have a list of commands I can do now and chkdsk is 1 of them ? There is all kinds showin.

 

Type in chkdsk /r and hit enter.

 

Doing the chkdsk /r now and did run chkdsk /p and it had errors on it but does not say just that its the volume.

chkdsk /r showed no problems?

 

EDIT: you can try to boot the computer normally to see if chkdsk was able to fix things. If still no go in regular or safe mode then you want to go ahead and start fresh and get it over with. As far as I can tell you have only been doing repairs and not doing a new install.

I found an old DELL OS disk and the screens pretty much match up with this guide (scroll down to the screen shots). These are the steps you should be following for a fresh install, skipping 4b because it does not apply to your case. Step 5 is the only part that should take any thought but you probably have only two partitions one very small one for Dell diagnostics and one larger NTFS one. You would choose to install on the NTFS one and in the next step choose to format it using either the quick or full format option for NTFS.

 

WEEEE I have a desk top showing !! Now all I need to do is put in my wireless card and try to find the oem setup.

Thank you so much for your patients and time you have spent with me on this problem..

 

Now I need to find somewhere how to get my wireless card working to get this on the net to get all the updates?