Computer Troubles (MAJOR)

[three12]

I'm trying to fix my other PC.

It was ridden with virus's and spyware and basically, everything possible. - This thing picked up more diseases then a rich AFC (who doesn't like condoms) in thailand.

Anyway, in an attempt to fix it; I've totally destroyed it.

It was WinXP. I used fdisk and ruined the partition.

I've worked some basic things out.

a: -> floppy drive
c: -> hard drive with NOTHING on it.
r: -> CD Drive

(note: I type c: on command line and it says abort/retry/fail because I totally ruined its ****.)

I had an XPinstallation CD in the r: and attempted to run setup.exe but it said "cannot run setup in DOS"

or something.

If I boot with no floppy in; It says You have no operating system.
If I boot with win98 boot disk floppy; I can do some things but not install XP.

What my friends, should I do?

Thanks for your time.

Anyone able to help me will win a special prize. (But you'll have to come to my house, in Australia to get it; and I'll need to screen you to make sure you're not weird first. -also its not a very good prize, so you'd best just help me out of the niceness of your heart.)



Thanks in advance.

three12.

 

[KarmaSutra]

Do you have an XP install cd? If so put it in your drive and reformat the partition then clean install a fresh copy of XP.

Why did you use f-disk anyway?

 

[Docs]

Go into BIOS, set your CD Drive to the first boot device and take out your goddamn floppy.

 

[spider_007]

no offence to the nerds on this site but, you'd probably get more help from these guys
http://forums.thetechguys.com/index.php?

 

[KarmaSutra]

no offence to the nerds on this site but, you'd probably get more help from these guys
http://forums.thetechguys.com/index.php?

There is no reason to give guys who know computer stuff any grief. I do and I pull hot ass women.

No offence but if you're going to goof on nerds learn to spell it coorectly. Offense

 

[spider_007]

There is no reason to give guys who know computer stuff any grief. I do and I pull hot ass women.

No offence but if you're going to goof on nerds learn to spell it coorectly. Offense

-i didn't mean to come across that way, i just wanted to give him another resource....(ok maybe i wanted to ride on the guys a bit )

-F.Y.I. not everybody lived their whole lives in english speaking countries.


This just remainded me of when i was walking down a street downtown on a fiday night (11:00) and coming towards me was a group of gurls. One of them stoped me and asked if I new anything about computers (at the time i used to wear glasses.) Like a chump i mumbled; No, to my chin and kept walking.

ahhh, the memories.......:

 

[Starriol]

You need to change the boot order so you can boot from the CD.

If your XP CD won't boot, then you need to get something along the lines of the "ultimate boot cd" (google that).

Download the ISO, burn it into a cd, boot with that CD into a DOS and then install from there the winxp cd.

WARNING! You better execute smartdrv.exe or the installation will consume 30 minutes that could be avoided.

If you don't know how to do that, you can still install the soft, but it'll be slower.

Any other probs, contact me on msger starriol@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to help you out !

 

[Docs]

Haha, if your XP disk doesn't boot, you need a new computer. You don't need that ultimate boot disk if you're just looking to get XP back, just follow my instructions.

 

[spider_007]

oh watch the stupid updates if you do get it back up and running. This latest update has this stupid popup for "GENUINE WINDOWS" that goes up every time you start the computer.

(of course that's what i heard, i didn't see it personally, i've got genuine windows running on mine.)

 

[Docs]

Haha, I'm running a open computer without updates, just bare SP2...-_-, and she's doin fine

 

[KarmaSutra]

oh watch the stupid updates if you do get it back up and running. This latest update has this stupid popup for "GENUINE WINDOWS" that goes up every time you start the computer.

(of course that's what i heard, i didn't see it personally, i've got genuine windows running on mine.)

My hack copy of XP Pro got hit with this POS update. I dl an XP install keygen (one that actually fvckin' works) and changed the install key. works like a charm now.

 

[three12]

Thanks everyone for your help.

I'll first try booting the CD by changing the BIOS settings - I DON'T think that will work -due to previous -but slightly different- efforts.

Then I'll try the ultimate boot cd.

I'll keep you updated. thanks again.

three12.

 

[Skel]

no offence to the nerds on this site but, you'd probably get more help from these guys
http://forums.thetechguys.com/index.php?

Rofl thats funny. I use to be the moderator over there. Yes they can be helpful though.

 

[JC9]

Use Fdisk again, wipe out any partitions (since you're going for a full re-install)

Create a new logical partition
Set that partition as active (important step)
Either go into Bios and change the boot order to place the CD above the HD or hit whatever F key brings up the boot menu during system load.

The FDISK part it key, because you need to write a partition before the WinXP install can recognize it.

 

[OfficeSpace]

Support: Do you have all the papers and boxes that came with your computer? Woman: Yeah
Support: Good! Then go ahead pack it up and return it.
Woman: Okay, but what do I tell them?
Support: Well... tell them you're TOO STUPID TO OWN A COMPUTER!

Just kidding...

Actually, get a DOS boot CD and pull up fdisk and like JC9 said... Remove all partitions and reinstall from scratch. Next time download and install anti virus software and stop using Internet Explorer! You'll stop getting all that spyware from websites. Use Firefox instead. Firefox owns!

 

[JC9]

Next time download and install anti virus software and stop using Internet Explorer! You'll stop getting all that spyware from websites. Use Firefox instead. Firefox owns!

And never, ever, use Outlook Express as your email client. It's probably the most virus prone application in history. You don't even have to click on the emails for the virus to execute.

 

[dannowillbookem]

firefox is great. i have spybot search and destroy and it blocks the spyware that tries to download on sites...going on IE you can barely get shiit done cause it keeps asking if you want to block downloads. firefox does that on its own, its a really great browser.

 

[GirlCrazy]

First off, you don't need FDISK.

All you need is the Windows XP CD. You can boot to the CD and hit the R option for repair console, or you can opt for a new install, and use the installer to delete and re-create the partition in question. Optionally, you can plug the drive into a working computer (I use an IDE-to-USB cable) and use Windows drive manager to create a new or repair the existing partition.

It should be possible to recover your existing XP installation if you want to. The repair console has a command, I think it's called "fixmbr", that will repair your master boot record. I'd give that a shot first.

Hard drive education 101:

The very first sector on the hard disk contains the master boot record (MBR). The MBR has a fixed table with 4 slots (called the partition table) for partition information. Partition programs (like FDISK) simply overwrite the entire MBR record, erasing the 4 partition entries with it. There are disk utilities (I'm currently writing one) that can figure out that there's an "orphaned" partition and fix the entry in the MBR's partition table to point to the existing partition.

Good luck!