Severe Laptop Issues

[Ace]

Bought a new laptop last a bit over a week ago. It came with XP Home so yesterday morning was upgrading to XP Pro and half way through the upgrade Marcos turned it off. :twisted: :twisted:

After this it wouldnt boot at all, just kept coming up with an error message saying a file wasnt missing, each time you tried the file name changed. It is a Compaq notebook, it doesnt come with boot discs because there is a separate partition on the hard drive that it restores from in the event of a failure. After the event a third partition which was 8mb appeared, we have managed to get rid of it as its not supposed to be there. We are now back to the original two partitions, the main hard drive and the back up one. Problem is the drive letters have been reasigned. The main one is now D instead of C drive and the other is C instead of D. We need to boot from the main one and reinstall windows but it wont let us because the computer thinks the C drive is the D drive if you follow. Dad has a tool for swapping the names of the drives but it appears the computer is swapping them back.

I am begining to panic and Marcos' life is in danger. Please help. Matt

[Wazza]

Go into Bios setup and reassign the drive names

Then see how you go from there

[Ace]

Go into Bios setup and reassign the drive names

Then see how you go from there

Dad has done that but it changed the names back from what he said. Matt

[abaddonxi]

Weren't you upgrading from xp home to xp pro? If so, why don't you just boot from cd and do repair install?

Cheers
Simon.

[ladas]

Either boot from the CD as stated above, or change the boot options in the bios - you should have an option to boot from

CD Rom
HDD 1
HDD 2 etc.,
FDD

Choose the one where the OS/backup is on.

Or boot from CD, then stop the install ending back up at C prompt - then do a new clean install from DOS

Ladas

[ladas]

Or just interupt the boot sequence (press F10, F8, Esc or Del Key - can't recall which)

I'll try mine and confirm

[ladas]

Press and hold the F8 key then switch on - you will have several options for booting - boot in C prompt safe or otherwise, with CD support - then new install from CD

[Ace]

I'll let dad explain-

It boots from CD. It swaps the drives C to D so that C is the "recovery" partition. When you swap them back it reverts on the next reboot. C becomes the active partition. When you make D active it still fails to boot.

I suspect the problem is in the BIOS. It has a feature where F11 activates the recovery drive. Running setup to install XP pro fails totally at the last step. I suspect that something is preventing it from writing to the boot sector but there is nothing in thhe BIOS to change this!

Big Ace

[ladas]

The Pro version of Win XP you have - is it a full install - or an upgrade version ?

[Blknight.aus]

sounds more like an MBR fault or partitioning fault to me....

hope youve got a recovery cdrom, this will work but not if your relying on a HD partition based Recovery system...

burn yourself a cdrom that is bootable and has Fdisk, partionmagic or nortons Disk doctor on in versions that are command prompt friendly...(Heretoafter refered to as partitioning CD or CDp for short)

grab hold of your recovery cdrom

boot that cdrom, then manually delete all partitions...
shut down the system, count to 30 and reboot on the CDp
repartition the drive, I recommend spilting it into 3 parts

1. 10gb for the actual software, (windows, office, browesers etc)
2. x gb to be the dedicated swapfile drive for windows (mines set at 5 but this part also doubles as a temp file drive)
3. whatevers left for installing games and storing data

shut down, count to 30 and reboot on CDP.
confirm your partitions are where you want them and set the first partition to bootable.
shutdown, count to 30 and reboot on the windows installer/recovery cdrom.

best of luck

[incisor]

any why is going to xp pro considered an upgrade ?

[ladas]

That's one way of doing it - but why would you want to partition into 3, you don't actually achieve that much.

If you re-set it up with a single partition - the errors or problems that can occur with partitioning are eliminated.

To get through the initial problem I - personally - would - as you say use a boot disk with fdisk on it - delete all the existing partitioning - re-boot that just set one partition for the whole disk.

Then when everything is up and running well - then - if you feel you must have more than one partition use one of the propriatry programs, Partition Manager, or the like to add/change the partitions.

One other thing that could have an issue - some bios have a security setting which stops writing to the boot area - check that as well.

[Blknight.aus]

it helps with preventing fragmentation and in the event of drive failure (virus kills master boot record or windows falls over again) you have half a chance of saving the later partitions.

[ladas]

it helps with preventing fragmentation and in the event of drive failure (virus kills master boot record or windows falls over again) you have half a chance of saving the later partitions.

Yes agreed - but get the thing up and running first - then go through the grief.

Plus I have just checked my bios - in there in advanced bios features there is a section on Bios Sector Protection - this needs to be diabled - you can re-enable it later which solves one of the suggestions above

.............just my opinion but if you keep it simple first get the system up and running - then fiddle and f**t around with all the extras at your own leasure.

At least you are a little more relaxed and less likely to make a mistake or disembowel small children who switch bloody things off - Dave you met Tim my son - he nearly didn't make it to 3 for just the same problem - last five mins into what was then a Win 95 install and he presses that bloody button

[Ace]

The version of XP Pro is the full version.

It didnt come with a recovery CD, thats what the partition is supposed to be for, i will let dad know. We may have to ring Compaq and have them send one out. Matt

[Ace]

any why is going to xp pro considered an upgrade ?

you cant network with home, i am just using the term windows does when you install pro over home.

I personally hate partitioning, its a PITA, i would much prefer to have the one whole thing and then back up data that i cant do without in the event of a failure. Matt

[incisor]

you cant network with home,
you can, up to 5 computers with home in a workgroup....

[ladas]

The version of XP Pro is the full version.

It didnt come with a recovery CD, thats what the partition is supposed to be for, i will let dad know. We may have to ring Compaq and have them send one out. Matt

Ok if it's a full version - and you don't like partitions - then it's easy.

1. Put the XP Pro disk in boot up the machine, but when it asks you if you want to install XP Pro - cancel

That should bring you back to a C:>

2.The XP Pro disk should have fdisk on it, so run that - delete all the existing partitions, then re-boot, then cancel the xp install again if it asks (it may just take you direct to partitioning) but if not get back to C:>

Re-run fdisk - partition however you want it, 1, 2 or 3 whatever.

Re-boot then install XP Pro

Check that the Bios advanced bios protection feature is disabled as well

Ladas

[HangOver]

Hi Ace

This turned into a long post but please read it all.

A couple of things first, your 8mb partition that was deleted, that is normal for XP and in future should never be deleted, it's where it stores information about your hard drive.

XP home can be networked quite happily, just not to a network with a domain controller, (read: big corporate network).

I doubt very much that you will be able to "recover" you laptop as it was before you started if you were not supplied with a restore CD and you have no other access to the original install files, (which you probably won't).

So the bad news is what ever info you have on the laptop now will be lost, (unless you want to spend $$$$$$$$ on specialist data recovery).

The good news is it's pretty straight forward to install XP pro, and it will most likely install the drivers you need as well.

If you follow the advice below you will install XP and get you laptop working BUT YOU WILL LOOSE ALL DATA that is on your laptop. If you are OK with this do the following:

First (very important ! ) crack a cold beer before you start, sit down and take a deep breath, then

Make sure you have the XP pro CD and code/cd-key, (long code with about 6 groups of 5 characters or there about)
Boot laptop from XPpro CD

Eventually you will be asked if you want to install XP (and/or possibly repair XP as well). Select install

It will ask which partition you want to install XP onto and it will offer you, (I am assuming here) two partitions.
DO NOT install at this point.

Delete ALL existing partitions, (cant remember exact keys but read the screen it will tell you).

Create a new partition, (if you want more than one partition now is the time to do it).
If you want to make it easy as possible just create one partition.

Once you have created the partition install XP to that partition.

It will ask if you want to SLOW or QUICK format, select slower (full) NTFS format.

Sit back relax, and finish your beer, in fact have two it will take a while.

Good luck mate, just remember you are dealing with software so what ever you do with you XP CD if it’s wrong you just start again. You can’t physically brake your computer doing this.

If this doesn’t work PM your email address I’ll send you my home number and talk you through it. It’s long distance though as I’m in WA.
I wouldn’t be able to do that till Friday evening at the earliest.

Steve

[Blknight.aus]

Ace, If you cant fix it by january, and you can get it to me when i blitz past on my holiday journies, I'm willing to take it to charleville and have a crack at it while Im up there (I'll have time)

Not entirely sure how It would get back but providing the case isnt too bulky IT could just be posted back.(properly packaged)

best of luck with it.

[JDNSW]

........
At least you are a little more relaxed and less likely to make a mistake or disembowel small children who switch bloody things off - Dave you met Tim my son - he nearly didn't make it to 3 for just the same problem - last five mins into what was then a Win 95 install and he presses that bloody button

When my older grand daughter became mobile my tower moved from the floor to the back of my desk against the wall - fortunately the incident that prompted that was not as traumatic - just halfway through typing a letter!

John

[Ace]

No worries thanks guys, we rang compaq and we are trying to get them to send out a recovery CD, they put the recovery info on the partition cause they dont have to pay to have a DC put in with the computer that way, friggin tight arses.

I will rephrase the not being able to be networked thing. It may be able to be networked but i cant be connected to the school network with Home, that is why Pro is needed.

Dad is away today but i will pass on the info, we reckon we can sort it if we can delete the partitions and then start from scratch. Matt

[Ace]

The putie is fixed thanks for your help guys. Just need to download the drivers. Matt

[Blknight.aus]

You can download and install the appropriate network stuff online and then you'll be able to talk to any network you like..

I think you might also get them with SP2

[Ace]

You can download and install the appropriate network stuff online and then you'll be able to talk to any network you like..

I think you might also get them with SP2

No worries, thanks. Matt

[shorty943]

Firstly, you can network with XP Home, you just don't get the corporate domain stuff with Home. I know, because I have it setup on my home LAN.

Second, the repair partition, which should have been hidden, has a disk set build and burn function, although as you seem to want Pro, this is a moot point.

Third, fry every partition and then make one, set it to active and install.

Fourth, the XP MBR repair is "fixmbr"

Hope this can help.

regards shorty943.

Part-time tech, into inter-system research for an IT firm. That is. Just how many differing systems and machines can I cobble together and get playing nice with each other.