Select the operating system to start

[truenorth]

Lisa, Essentially yes. As you will be doing a complete removal and re formatt i don't forsee the use of the "recovery" disc but certainly the O/S system disc is fundamental to your gaining the use of the computer via a reinstall. How do you feel re the descriptions provided in my link? Do you feel ok about proceeding? It might serve you well to read them over a few times until you feel comfortable about starting the process. I feel given your replies above that you can only improve your situation as at the present time all you have is a dust collector. truenorth
P.S. Have a look at this as well. http://www.ehow.com/how_6026_format-hard-drive.html

[Lisa010262]

I have looked over both sites you referenced, and although both appear to be easy enogh to understand, they both require booting from the cd drive and this computer does not seem to be able to do this??

[truenorth]

Lisa,I have a bit of confusion as to the exact nature of the CD drive in your laptop. From one of your posts there seems to be a reference to it working with some other disks other than the O/S disks. Is that so? If yes what were those disks? Also if other disks work in the drive what do they do to indicate that they are working? Also can you put any CD disk in the drive and regardless of whether it plays or not can you actually select and open the drive to access a disk or put a disk in? If the answer is yes then at least you have power working on the drive. You were asked by another CH member as to the physical connections vis-a -vis your hardrive and CD drive. Are you able to determine that? Are they on the same ide cable or on separate cables? I must tell you while i have delved into the innards of many desktop PC i have never (yet) had the opportunity to get inside a laptop. It is my understanding they are much more difficult to work on so i do appreciate your trepidation. I don't believe you replied as to any continued access to the "Friend" that sold you this laptop. I feel if they are still available they should make this right for you. I don't know if you want to spend any more money in regards to this computer but as i suggested earlier USB connectable floppy drives are available at very little cost and would allow you to try the floppy route to reformat. I am including another reference this time to do with malfunctioning Cd drives in the hopes it may point to something that brings about an "AH HA" moment. truenorth  http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1043936.html

[Lisa010262]

I apologize for any confusion.

The CD drive does work, for instance I can put the widows Xp pro disk in and the following menu comes up,

                  Welcome to MS windows XP
                     what do you want to do
                         Install XP
                         Learn more about set up
                         Install optional windows components
                         Perform additional task
                         Check system compatibility

Un fortunately when I reboot the computer it does not boot from this drive.

Again unfortunately I do not have access to the "friend"

I guess I should looking into the purchase of the floppy drive and usb cable

Thanks,

[truenorth]

Lisa, If when you put the XP Operating system disk in and it asks you "what do you want to do" and offers a choice of "install Xp" what happens if at that point you chose "install XP"? If you do decide to purchase a USB connectable floppy drive there is no need to additionally purchase a USB cable. It will come with one attached to the floppy drive. While with a bit of searching USB floppy drives can be found for under $10.00 here are a few links to help you along the way. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=287
http://www.geeks.com/products_sc.asp?cat=742
http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2143215&Sku=D15-1078
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=150498
   I wouldn't yet run out and buy anything as from your reply you "DO" have a functioning CD drive. So it should be possible to move from that to reinstalling your operating system from the CD you have (unless there is something wrong with the CD itself). At this point (given that it is a legit copy of the XP O/S) i would appreciate that someone else make a comment on whether an issue exists if this particular O/S disk which may have been associated with another computer will present a problem if it is attempted to be installed on another computer other than the one it was sold with.
   Don't give up yet. truenorth
 

[Lisa010262]

well, when i choose install, i believe the next option is to install new or repair I have tried both and although the computer does appear to have sped up a little, i still have the question when the computer is first turned on to select an operating system with one additional option XP set up?

Thanks again

[truenorth]

Lisa, It does sound like there has begun a process to install a new and complete version of XP from your CD by virtue of the appearance of the new added option of "XP setup". I suspect that you did not allow the installation to continue long enough when you last selected the option to fully install (not repair) the O/S. I suggest you select the "XP setup" choice and let us know what happens. It should lead you through the process of reinstalling ( a slightly exaggerated statement--as i don't believe XP was ever properly installed on that computer). You will be asked to confirm that you really do want to reinstall the O/S and also you should be warned that you will lose all data currently on the computer.let us know your results,goodluck,truenorth
P.S. make sure the XP O/S disc is in the CD drive when you start this process.
P.S.P.S.If the computer that your doing this process on is the only one you have prior to starting it may serve you well to print out a copy of one of the data/explanation of installing a new O/S that i sent you the links to before you begin so that you will have something to guide you.

[busweb]

Format and install which operating system you want; of course if you do not have important data on it. If you have, save all your data and after that format it.

[Lisa010262]

OK, I will have to guess that at this point I have probally made it worse.
When I went to do the install I got the following message for several file really probally 20.

Setup cannot copy the file: win_dos.chm
retry press enter
esc to skip

After retrying on each file several times a chose to skip. In hind site probally a bad decision.

When the computer rebooted I now get the following message:

STOP: c0000135 {unable to locate component}
This application has failed to start because winsrv was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

I receive this message whenever I turn off and restart the computer??

[truenorth]

Lisa, I know that things seem to have gotten worse. However i do not think that.Obviously the Cd drive is working properly. The fact that you chose to skip some items that it claimed were missing does not make your situation worse. But it does indicate something is amiss with the data contained on the O/S disc (likely incomplete). However i am going to request on your behalf that some software and format experts on the CH forums come on-board to help you. I have done this process a few times usually with assistance from forum members--so i do not concider myself an expert on this. However there certainly are some on here. I actually feel more confident about your likelyhood of gaining use of the computer now than i did earlier due to the things that have occur ed. Hopefully the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer.If Patio or Broni read this perhaps they will come back in now with these new developments. I shall continue to monitor the posts in this thread as i don't want to miss the eureka moment. goodluck,truenorth

[JJ 3000]

OK, I will have to guess that at this point I have probally made it worse.
When I went to do the install I got the following message for several file really probally 20.

Setup cannot copy the file: win_dos.chm
retry press enter
esc to skip

After retrying on each file several times a chose to skip. In hind site probally a bad decision.

You either have a dirty CD or CD drive. Try cleaning the CD. If that doesn't work, swap out the CD drive.
When you go back into setup, make sure you follow this order:
1. Delete partitions (all of them)
2. Create a partition
3. Format your partition (to set up windows on selected item press enter)

[Lisa010262]

Ok, Sorry I haven't been back sooner. In my frustration I was playing around with the few thinks I could do with this computer when I got to the BIOS screen and found an area where you could enable\disable the computer to read a boot drive it was disabled. When I enabled it I was able to boot from the system disk and restore the computer to it original factory setting! which I have done, and as of this point all is well!! Again thank you for your time and efforts.

[truenorth]

Lisa, Are we in a celebration YAHOO! situation here? Does this mean that you now have a fully installed fully functioning NEW XP O/S on your laptop? Please say yes so we can all crack open a bubbly (or whatever). Or have you just returned to the stage you were in when we were trying to get a new O/S to be installed? Which is it? Fingers crossed. truenorth

[Lisa010262]

It appears that we have a fully function xp operating system!

[truenorth]

YAHOO!Well done. truenorth