Urgent Help Needed with xp install

[Wogboy]

hi all...

im a bit of a noob when it comes to fixing things out side of windows...

The computer is a w6f asus laptop no upgrades except for bit more ram...

we put windows 7 on it.. it failed half way through the install so we decided not to worry about installing windows 7 and continued to play with vista, i installed microsoft word... i then restarted and it dissappeared i tried 3 more times before i wanted to install xp again...

now when i enter a genuine xp cd (no scratches) it says bootmgr missing..

i tried to boot from usb.. put all files from cd onto it. and then went through and said to only boot from the usb drive... same thing said that bootmgr missing..

so then i copied windows xp files onto the hard drive itself to try boot from it as if it was external hard drive trying to eliminate having a bad cd-dvd drive

same thing happened bootmgr missing...

i dont kno what else to do?

Edited January 19, 2009 by Wogboy

[JatinBeniwal]

Only thing you needed is to format your C drive and everything works fine. Then try to reinstall OS.

Enjoy.

[Wogboy]

Only thing you needed is to format your C drive and everything works fine. Then try to reinstall OS.

Enjoy.

ok ive done that... now i am getting ntldr error message instead.. and i still cant boot from any device?

[DL.]

Try checking the harddrive for errors. You can use for example the Ultimate Boot CD.

The harddrives in laptops have a far greater tendency to fail more often than those in desktop computers.

[jaclaz]

so then i copied windows xp files onto the hard drive itself to try boot from it as if it was external hard drive trying to eliminate having a bad cd-dvd drive

same thing happened bootmgr missing...

Are you trying to INSTALL a new operating system or to REPAIR an existing one?

In both cases WHICH one? (XP or Vista)?

Can you boot from CD/DVD drive the correspondent OS original CD/DVD?

jaclaz

[Wogboy]

so then i copied windows xp files onto the hard drive itself to try boot from it as if it was external hard drive trying to eliminate having a bad cd-dvd drive

same thing happened bootmgr missing...

Are you trying to INSTALL a new operating system or to REPAIR an existing one?

In both cases WHICH one? (XP or Vista)?

Can you boot from CD/DVD drive the correspondent OS original CD/DVD?

jaclaz

i am trying to install any OS... none seem to work i cant boot from any cd...

the computer started out with vista then to Windows 7, then back to Vista Now, i have formatted the hard-drive, which is partitioned in 2, now i am trying to install XP HOME

another thing is that i can use the hdd out of the laptop as a portable hdd fine using a hdd case its fine to transfer date to and from other computer?

also im pretty sure the actual name of the cd/dvd drive has changed i could of sworn it had a longer name its somehting like mits***o594uj something but i thought it was longer?

Edited January 18, 2009 by Wogboy

[jaclaz]

From what you report, you are not able to boot from CD/DVD.

also im pretty sure the actual name of the cd/dvd drive has changed i could of sworn it had a longer name its somehting like mits***o594uj something but i thought it was longer?

That is a "classical" symptom of a problem with connections from Motherboard to CD/DVD drive.

Unless it's a failing drive, possible but unprobable, it's a cable/connector problem.

Is it one of those "extractable" CD drives?

First thing you should try is to remove/reseat drive (if "extractable") or remove/reseat cables (if "fixed") or both.

The CD/DVD drive as detected by BIOS is usually a "human readable" Alphanumeriv string.

We need to take the "something" in:

somehting like mits***o594uj something

out of the equation.

Post EXACTLY what you can see when booting.

Hint:

pressing very quickly "PAUSE" key while booting should "freeze" the BIOS screen

jaclaz

[majormashup]

it doesn't sound like your laptop is attempting to boot from the optical drive at all. either check the drive (as mentioned in the previous post) or get barts network boot disk (and a usb floppy drive if nessecary) and boot into that, using that access a network shared optical drive with your xp disk in it and run setup.exe from there (note some xp disks can have the ability to install from a non-optical drive disabled so if setup gives you an error message that's probably why)

Hope this helps

[RJARRRPCGP]

We need to take the "something" in:

somehting like mits***o594uj something

out of the equation.

If that occurs, it's probably a bad IDE cable!

[submix8c]

Bad cable, or jumpers set incorrectly...

[jaclaz]

If that occurs, it's probably a bad IDE cable!

Really?

.....

That is a "classical" symptom of a problem with connections from Motherboard to CD/DVD drive.

Unless it's a failing drive, possible but unprobable, it's a cable/connector problem.

Is it one of those "extractable" CD drives?

First thing you should try is to remove/reseat drive (if "extractable") or remove/reseat cables (if "fixed") or both.

....

jaclaz

[homebuilder]

I am not an expert, but I have had the same trouble come up on my machines. As someone else said, reformating normally works but when you try to reformat within the install program for XP, it wont work.

So... what you have to do is use another tool or program to get it to work.

I have had success formating back to FAT under a windows 98 install reformaing to FAT with a disk partition utility and also by installing Ubuntu.

Main thing is, changing the type of disk format. Changing it to FAT or to the lunux version seems to somehow make the XP install see it as a totally new install and let you reformat the drive you want... but if you keep the format the same, for some reason the install disk gets mean and wont do a fresh install.

I would suggest downloading a ubuntu CD, install ubuntu linux ( and when you do, do a complete wipe of the hard drive) and then install XP with a complete reformat.

Hopefully that will work.