Weird Problem after Formatting HD WinXPsp2

Machine: DELL Dimension 8250
OS: WIN XP Home SP2
I have administrator rights.
I do full backups monthly and incremenals 3x wk on an external HD.
Last full backup was 1 week before HD crashed.

Mid December my HD crashed so I formatted it using the Reinstallation CD that came with it. Did all the MS Win updates. Now my system looks very weird. I have folder called "C" in my local disk, i.e. C:/c. Within that folder resides 2 subfolders; "DELL" and "Windows". Funny thing is I can access all those Windows files; but I cannot access all the Windows files in my local disk. Does that make sense?

C:/c/windows has 3.22 GB, 16,883 files and 1330 folders (I have access)
C:/windows has 2.97 GB, 8807 files and 1006 folders (I have some access)

This just does not look right. What brought all this to my attention was when I tried to install Ad-Aware 2007 Free; it told me I don't have administrator privileges.

QUESTION: Is having Windows in 2 places affecting my system? Did I do the reinstall wrong? Should I run it again?

Thanks for any direction to resolve this.
Sunmaiden

 

Tell us more about these statements, you are correct in thinking that the recovery process did not go as expected.

Please open (in notepad) and save boot.ini as a txt file and post that with the other details in your next post.

It is likely that your best couse at this stage will be to repeat the recovery properly, before you are committed to this ungainly setup.

With the above answers we can probably sort out how to complete the recovery process correctly.

 

my HD crashed: my computer would start but windows would not get past the Windows XP loading screen.

I restarted my computer with the Reinstallation CD MS Windows XP Home Edition including SP 1. I followed the prompts on the screen. It's apparent I selected something wrong along the way.

Thanks
Sunmaiden

 

OK your boot.ini tells me two things.
Firstly you have upgraded the new installation to SP2
Secondly that the system is booting from your new C:\c\windows installation.
I'm sure you will get lots of trouble in future if you try to keep on with this.

If you like you could try to rescue you old installation.

First format a floppy and save the following files to a it (if you have one on the machine)
boot.ini
NTdetect.com
ntldr (no extension)

Prove you can boot the system from this floppy

If so edit the boot.ini on the floppy to change the line

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\C\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

to
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

See if you can now boot to your original system. (note I have removed the \C\)

************************************************************************************

Alternatively to reinstall from the recovery CD you need to boot from the CD, not hit F12 to repair.

Only start this if you not only have the recovery disk marked operating system but also a second recovery disk marked drivers.

If you don't have the drivers they can be downloaded free from Dell. If you need them I will post the link.

Just put the CD in and watch for the screen notice
'press any key to boot from CD'
hit space bar

When windows setup loads and displays
'enter for install, R for repair'
hit enter
do this again at the next screen
Finally yes to format and follow the instructions.
You will have a clean install.

 

where do i get the files you are refering to:
I have a floppy and my boot.ini file.
Where would I locate NTdetect.com and NTLDR so copy them to the floppy?

Thank you!

 

All three files are on the root of the windows drive.

In theory this is c:\.

But as you say it was a funny installation so also look at c:\c\

Don't forget to set explorer to show all files and folders.

If your pc won't boot first form the floppy or CD then you will have to set this in bios (setup) by hitting F2 or del at powerup. Look for boot options.