XP - Crashed Install

I did a zero pass on my hard drive. I used kill disk to do this.

When installing xp from fresh it stalled. I now assume there is a partial operating system on my hd.

It now wont let me try and reinstall it again. it loads as "error loading operating system".

Is there anyway i can wipe my hard drive again, as Killdisk doesn't seem to be working.

Is this harddrive now ruined?

 

You're using a legal copy of XP I presume yes?

In which case your cd should be bootable, so choose to boot from cd in your bios, then restart (with the cd in your drive) and then try loading setup again.

Can you also give details of what error you get?

 

Just delete all the remaininig partitions

 

Yes but how are you supposed to do that if you can't boot?

 

Put the XP disc in then boot and it'll take you to a place about partitions..

 

It's not as easy as that, you can't give help like that and expect people to know what they're doing.

We give step by step help to give users advice they need.
Please don't hijack this thread any more, wiganath I await your reply.

 

joschcrick,

Read this please.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=86893

Unspecific, vague suggestions are not helpful, at all. We welcome your help, but please, make it...helpful.

 

Due to the partial installation it wouldn't work at all.

I changed the boot order so that it would go floppy. I tried killdisk but it loaded straight to h/d even if i pressed f11 and then floppy.

I tried the same with xp c.d, but it kept saying "error loading operating system" in the dos style startup screen. No error code or anything of such, just that message.

I am on my old hd obviously now and have managed to get the corrupt one to be recognised by windows. It wouldnt load on its own,but if i bypass it and load the older one it was in my system as my 2nd harddrive, so i have formatted it with right click.

I am now going to try and reinstall windows, assuming the format has sorted out my drive? we'll see

Thanks for the replies.

 

Yeh a format will have wiped everything.

You want it to boot from cd, not floppies also.

 

Am now back on a fresh system , but the original problem still remains......

The reason i wanted a fresh install was because i purchased a dvd writer "NEC 4570a"

It wasnt working properly i.e, not reading most dvds, not burning dvds. I thought a fresh install might fix any bugs.

It hasn't completely fixed that though.

It now seems to read most dvds, and i have just managed to burn a quick dvd, but i cant access it through my computer.

When i go into my computer, i get this screen
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/_T_A_X_I_/1.jpg
as you can see its called cd drive (F), but has dvd-r on it.

If i click this it goes to this screen...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v497/_T_A_X_I_/2.jpg

It also seems to slow down, or hang whilst its trying to access them, ie not responding, but comes back after a little time.
I have tried the dvds on a laptop and they have got information on them, so they burned okay. So although it burned okay, my drive wont read them, any idea what the deal is here?
Bad dvd drive, bad disks? can i fix this with a patch, a program? an alternative way to access disks other than my computer?

 

A couple weeks ago I was having a hard time reinstalling XP Pro on my PC (to clean up a messy system someone else left me) and I ended up having to format the HD using my old Win98SE CD and boot disk, then installed XP Pro on the clean hard drive. It worked great.

 

You may have erased all the drivers you needed to intall XP at which point you will needt to download them onto a floppy from another PC and reinstall them. The instructions should be on your pc's website.

When I bought my first decent computer, I had no drivers and had to pay a place $75 to intsall XP. At the time, I did not know as much as I know now.

 

Re-install the software that came with your DVD drive.

I could be wrong, but, DVD "reading" is not installed with typical XP installs.

So, you may (should) install any software that came with your drive.

 

It turns out that it must have been a bad drive which was the cause of al my trouble.

I exchanged it at the shop and now have one that works fine

Thanks for all the help guys

 

correct. a decoder of some kind needs to be installed. XP does not install a software decoder. something like WinDVD or PowerDVD or a hardware decoder (do they still make them?? )has to be installed.

@wiganath
glad its working!