Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 long story short: i need to reformat my hard drive, but my computer is not booting up in a way that would let me reformat it. is there a boot disc file that i can download and put on a cd so that i can boot from the cd and use a utility on the cd to wipe the hard drive? longer story: my dad had an extra computer at his work that had vista beta on it and they werent using it so he gave it to me with xp install discs so i could install xp and use it for school. unfortunately, the beta expired and is asking for a new product key, so it will not fully boot, and im running into a driver issue (i think) when i boot from the xp disc that will not let me install it.which is why i just want to wipe it clean and start over. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PaulyWally Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 Get a Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 You should be able to boot from the XP installation disks and then reformat from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 in response to paulywally: well, obviously... unfortunately, thats not a viable option right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 in response to mudbass: its not letting me. it keeps on running into some sort of error and says that if if keeps coming back, its a driver that needs to be removed.however, the vista beta is asking for a new product key, so it isnt loading completely, so i cant go in and change anything. all the computer is letting me do right now is allowing IE to work so that i can buy a product key. i was able to get into the xp install disc, but it wouldnt let me install xp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 in response to mudbass:its not letting me. it keeps on running into some sort of error and says that if if keeps coming back, its a driver that needs to be removed.however, the vista beta is asking for a new product key, so it isnt loading completely, so i cant go in and change anything. all the computer is letting me do right now is allowing IE to work so that i can buy a product key. i was able to get into the xp install disc, but it wouldnt let me install xp. 'So the XP installation won't let you get as far as the "format disk" option? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcrow Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 in response to mudbass:its not letting me. it keeps on running into some sort of error and says that if if keeps coming back, its a driver that needs to be removed.however, the vista beta is asking for a new product key, so it isnt loading completely, so i cant go in and change anything. all the computer is letting me do right now is allowing IE to work so that i can buy a product key. i was able to get into the xp install disc, but it wouldnt let me install xp. sounds like what i might have met if i tried xp on my vista laptop.. do you have the key for xp...and does it boot up with some options like..repair/new install/replace files etc.. i wobble when i put the xp disc in... will watch this thread closely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 This should be the procedure. http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/windows/instructions/reformat.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 no... when the computer boots up, it says: "windows license is expired. (click here to) access you computer with reduced functionality" the reduced functionality... actually might have more functionality than i thought.. i think i might have just figured it out... ill post again in a few.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oddsock Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 if you are really booting from the cd nothing from the hard drive should be involved. i.e. you should be able to boot from the cd with no hard drive in the machine at all. there are disc images you could download and use to format, but I don't think that will get you anywhere. if you can't boot from the cd now, you won't be able to after you format either. what exactly is the process you are going through to try and boot from the cd, and what exactly does it say in the error message? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcrow Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 no... when the computer boots up, it says: "windows license is expired. (click here to) access you computer with reduced functionality" the reduced functionality... actually might have more functionality than i thought.. i think i might have just figured it out... ill post again in a few.... welcome to the self help forum.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 that would be a fantastic website if i could get to that point. i can boot from the xp disc, but while it is still loading, the BSD pops up and says,"a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer."in the error report, it mentions "pci.sys" so i am going to try and delete that to see if that clears it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcrow Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 This should be the procedure. http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/windows/instructions/reformat.htm i like that..and the comment..backup and set the bios to boot from CD:thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members justinbass Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 Go into your BIOS and change the boot order to boot from CD before Hard Drive. To get into your BIOS : When the computer first turns on, before windows loads, it'll say hit XXX to enter setup. Do that. You will need to hit F2 at startup(Dell), F10(Compaq), the Del[ete] key, or something else. Then, hit any key when it says to "hit any key to boot from CD..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 ok, i guess its time for a recap.... i cant get xp to load the way that you usually would. the reg key for the vista beta expired, so i cant install xp through vista. booting from the cd works (i get the "hit any key to boot from cd" page without a problem), but always comes up with an error, which i cant fix, because the reg key for vista beta expired, and it wont let me. i do know how it should work. but it isnt working that way. which is why i was wondering if anyone knew if i could boot from a cd (not the xp disc, since it isnt working, which i cant fix, because the vista beta wont let me) that could then run a utility to format the drive. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 i like that..and the comment..backup and set the bios to boot from CD:thu: Windows 3.1 was so much easier. All you had to do was boot from a DOS floppy and at the C: prompt type in "del {censored}ing windows" then hit enter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members PaulyWally Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 if you are really booting from the cd nothing from the hard drive should be involved. i.e. you should be able to boot from the cd with no hard drive in the machine at all. Yeah... It doesn't sound like you're booting from the CD at all. You can check your BIOS (per justinbass). You can also look for a "Boot Menu". To get to a boot menu, you have to press one of the 'F' keys (I've usually seen it 'F11') and that'll ask for a specific drive to boot from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 booting from the cd works (i get the "hit any key to boot from cd" page without a problem), but always comes up with an error, which i cant fix, because the reg key for vista beta expired, and it wont let me.i do know how it should work. but it isnt working that way. i just went in to check the BIOS and it was already set to boot from the cd before the hard drive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oddsock Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 ok, i guess its time for a recap....i cant get xp to load the way that you usually would. the reg key for the vista beta expired, so i cant install xp through vista. booting from the cd works (i get the "hit any key to boot from cd" page without a problem), but always comes up with an error, which i cant fix, because the reg key for vista beta expired, and it wont let me.i do know how it should work. but it isnt working that way.which is why i was wondering if anyone knew if i could boot from a cd (not the xp disc, since it isnt working, which i cant fix, because the vista beta wont let me) that could then run a utility to format the drive.thanks! booting from a cd uses nothing from the hard drive, so formatting the drive won't help you boot from the cd. do you have a pci-express video card in the computer? according to this thread (which sounds like your problem) XP sp1 doesn't support pci-express. so you'd have to install with a different video card, update, then swap video cards back, or install on a different machine, update, then swap the drive back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oddsock Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 or get/make a slipstreamed XP SP2 install cd, as a third option. I'll have to keep this in mind for my next pc, what a pain in the ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 ooooooooohhh.... sorry, i had misunderstood before. i thought it was a driver (something on the hard drive) that was preventing the xp disc to load, so i was planning on wiping the entire drive to do a clean install. i think i have a pci express video card, but im not sure... its a laptop, so i cant really dig inside or swap out cards to figure it out EDIT: or maybe im just more confused than i was before... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudbass Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 booting from a cd uses nothing from the hard drive, so formatting the drive won't help you boot from the cd.do you have a pci-express video card in the computer? according to this thread (which sounds like your problem) XP sp1 doesn't support pci-express. Yes it does. This right from microsoft. PCIe hardware is backwards compatible with PCI software on the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP operating systems. The PCI features supported by current Windows operating systems will continue to work with PCIe without any need for modifications in the applications, drivers, or operating system; however, the advanced PCIe features will be natively supported only in Windows Vista and later versions of Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SteveyDevey Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 Yes it does. This right from microsoft.PCIe hardware is backwards compatible with PCI software on the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP operating systems. The PCI features supported by current Windows operating systems will continue to work with PCIe without any need for modifications in the applications, drivers, or operating system; however, the advanced PCIe features will be natively supported only in Windows Vista and later versions of Windows. I was going to say the same thing. I've got a PCI-e card in my desktop and have never had problems with XP (SP2). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oddsock Posted August 31, 2007 Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 Yes it does. This right from microsoft. PCIe hardware is backwards compatible with PCI software on the Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP operating systems. The PCI features supported by current Windows operating systems will continue to work with PCIe without any need for modifications in the applications, drivers, or operating system; however, the advanced PCIe features will be natively supported only in Windows Vista and later versions of Windows. hmm, well that would be a smart way to design it. regardless, seems like there are lots of people in that thread who fixed this problem by installing from an SP2 disk. Whether it's PCIe or some other hardware issue (SATA or something), seems like a good bet to try it. boscal45: any idea whether the XP disk you have is SP2 or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boscal45 Posted August 31, 2007 Author Members Share Posted August 31, 2007 after some more digging around, apparantly a slipstreamed xp disc with sp2 should do the trick... now i just have to make one i do have sp2 on a disc, so its not going to be that bad... thanks guys. i appreciate all the help. it wasnt as simple as i had hoped it would be, but at least now i think i am pointed in the right direction... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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