I F****d Up Installation

Fanny Cradock

AHHHHGGGGG, Bollox!

Like a moron i deleted some of the drivers for the HDD that i had just installed from the cd that came with the motherboard. Now the computer wont boot past a milli second of the black xp startup screen. It then flashes for an equally small amount of time to a blue screen of death (not a hope of reading what it says on it - too fast) and then shuts down and starts again. Even when it prompts me for safe mode etc. it makes no difference.

Anything i can do?
If not, how can i wipe the harddrive and start again?


BAAAAAH!

Cal

Boot from the XP CD and do a repair.

Cal

vishal

dont know about fixing it but you can reinstall over the old copy of xp with the windows disc. alternatively you can back up some of the stuff on your system by using knoppix (a live linux distro) and then format and then reinstall.

Fanny Cradock

thanks cal,
doing that now!
question though: which windows installation should I use?
have no Idea what this means - it appears that there is only a one letter/number option.
any clues?

Cal

Taking it you only have one windows installation on the disk you just select the one offered. May need to select the number 1.

Cal

Orion

If the HDD drivers came with the motherboard then I assume you're talking about the SATA RAID drivers. I don't think a repair will fix this as they're not provided by MS. (It might but I don't think so).

However an over the top installation (ie - reinstall Windows completely into the same directory) should fix it and maintain all your installed apps and data.

snappieT

If they are third party drivers, the repair *should* ask you to press F7 or F8 to install these drivers, via floppy disk I think...

Cal

If he is getting to see the XP startup screen and bluescreens then it is not a driver issue but a screwed up OS. So a repair or a refresh should sort it.

Cal

Fanny Cradock

im getting really efficient at switching the monitor and keyboard between the two machines *sigh*

anyway, i went through the alphabet in the meantime and started on the numbers. you are correct in guressing that it my first install.
there's a lot of options there and im not sure which one to take. Tried fixbootsector or something like that but didnt work.
can you be more specific on what i should actually do??
also, if i cant get this to wor and i go for a complete reinstall will that just wipe the drive ?? thinking that it would be best at this stage
cheers mate!!


::::edit::::

just read macros post
think i'll just reinstall it. xp wont recognise the sata drive as the drivers came with the motherboard.

thanks guys!!
time to lug my monitor back over.

Cal

Just go for the option of an install and install the OS over the screwed one. That is what is known as a refresh and should sort it. It will probably moan and offer to repair the old OS but keep insisting on an Install.

Cal

Fanny Cradock

*Hauls 21 inch monitor back* damn plug shortage

ok, did that. keep u posted!

Cal

What you want is a KVM switch.

Think of the exercise.

Orion

complete reinstall won't wipe the drive unless you tell it to. It's an install option. It should recognise that there's an installation already there and offer to repair it now that I think of it - then as snappieT said press whatever F-button is requests for 3rd party RAID drivers.

Fanny Cradock

thanks for the help up to now guys. Reinstalled xp and everything appeared fine untill 1/2 way through reinstall i got this message:

"repair asks for VIAAGP.SYS on VIA AGP filter driver disk"

dont know what this means so after trying a number of installation cds (motherboard and graphics card) and finding nothing I had to click cancel and proceed through the setup. I can now access windows but.....

now my graphics car isnt being detected.

i'm assuming this is to do with the missing file above. when i try to install the driver from the installation cd it say that it cant locate any drivers compatible with current hardware. tried "add hardware" option but windows doesnt have a listing for any geforce graphics cards (unless i deleted them as well - the horror) so i tried manually finding/installing the driver from the cd but nothing doing - i couldnt find anything that would help on the cd.

i wonder is there anyway of TOTALLY wiping the HDD and starting again? dont want two copies of xp on the hdd.
i noticed on one of my many reinstalls that there is an option to format the HDD i.e. /FORMAT [DRIVE:C] and something about fat files etc. Im really leaning towards this option as I hope it would help erase my prior mistakes/sins against computing. unfortunately, i lack the know-how and at this stage im affraid i'll only make things worse. any advice on how to go about this?

thanks in advance

Orion

You can format the drive as part of a full Windows installation. Just as long as you're aware that all programs and data will be gone so do a backup first.

r00t69

Macros42 wrote:

You can format the drive as part of a full Windows installation. Just as long as you're aware that all programs and data will be gone so do a backup first.

Sounds like the best option. Although only the data from the C: Drive will be wiped so if you have a Drive etc they will be safe.

BTW you mention the system notes a missing VIAAGP.SYS then mention geforce card? You note no video but you must have if you get the above message however is it running at 640x480x8bit? Anyway VIAAGP sound like its either an onboard video(?) or its the chipset drivers! Have you updated drivers since installing the original drivers? My advise is to install all the drivers you have from your reinstallation CD, one of them should hit the mark!

Cal

Now that your OS is up and running you could try a system restore (to before you screwed up) or even running the System File Checker.

Cal

astrofool

www.viaarena.com download the chipset drivers, they're at version 5, should fix that.

Fanny Cradock

nice one lads, i'm back to where i was before the, er.....computer ****ed up



one last problem* (*probably not though)

i still cant connect to the internet

i noticed that the network card wasn't enabled so i updated the drivers and it appears as functioning fully in the device manager. however, when i try to connect it says that i have limited or no connection - i'm betting it's none.


when i run ipconfig/all on my old comp i get this (btw, i deleted some of the end numbers...saftey first and all that!).


Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . .
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . .
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2

Connection-specific DNS Suffix .
Description . . . . . . . . . . . 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet
Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible) #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . 00-B0
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . 82.6.
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . 255.
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . 82.6
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . 82.9
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . 194.16
194.16
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . Disabled
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . 31 May 200
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . 02 June 200

when i tryied this on the new com i get this

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.


Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
dont get this as its listed as functional in the device manager.

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . :
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet 10/10
0/1000Base-T Adapter, Copper RJ-45
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . :

i notice that dhcp is enabled. if i understand correctly, it should just connect automatically.

r00t69

emm...media disconnected should offer a clue Do you connect to the internet via the NIC are a USB Modem?

If NIC is there any activity on the LEDs on the NIC itself?

Fanny Cradock

p.s. as a lame way of saying thanks i'll tip you off to a really cheap company in germany that i got my parts with - http://www.comtech.de/specials.php. you should give em a go. for instance: komplett offered an AMD 3000+ for €145 whereas i bought mine (at the time) for €129 off these guys. these savings appear to be across the board on all products

Fanny Cradock

hummm, media disconnected DID seem rather important lol

well,not sure if this answers you question, but the modem connects by ethernet to my old and new comp - not usb (although ntl gave me a usb installation disk).
never heard of NIC before so i'm none the wiser about that. i can answer that the led do ligh up on the modem when connected to my new computer thingy.
i.e.

*eten
*d/s
*sync
*rdy

in otherwords the same ones that lightup on the functioning computer.


reading back over this posti've come to the conclusion that i truly am a noob to all this

ressem

Media disconnected suggests first that the LAN cable is not connected or faulty.

Could you try unplugging the old PC's cable from the back of the PC and placing into the new PC.
Give it a minute and you should see
activity and link lights on router if it has lights, also on the PC network connection.

If you've lights but no ip address allocated,
Try ipconfig /renew to try and kick XP into checking for DHCP values.

Fanny Cradock

WOOOOH
thanks reesem, that did it!
now for years of problem free computing :rolleyes: