I can't boot !

  • Thread starter Thread starter Babel17DELANY
  • Start date Start date
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Babel17DELANY

I just tried to boot my fairly new XP machine.
I got a message on the screen that said: NTLDR is missing, press CTR-Alt-Del
to reboot.
Every time I pressed Ctr-Alt-Del I get the same message.
I put in my installation disk & the machine showed a screen that says
Windows Setup.
A line on the bottom says Setup is loading files, then I get a screen that
said Windows XP Home Edition Setup. There are three choices: To set up
Windows XP now, press ENTER
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console,
press R
To quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

I tried "R" and got a list of programs, but I have no idea what to do with
them.

I tried "F3". It said "Windows XP is not completely set up on your
computer. If you quit setup now, you will need to run setup again to set up
Windows XP".

The computer restarted and entered Windows setup again.

I tried set up Windows XP press ENTER.

I picked the choice "Leave the current file system intact (no changes).

It said "Windows is copying files". After several minutes, the yellow bar
reached 100 % and the computer tried to reboot but I got the "press any key
...." I did nothing, and i got a window that said "An Exciting New Look" and
"Setup will complete in approximately: 39 minutes".

During this time it asked me if I wanted to view the configuration and asked
me to type in the name of the computer. I did.

If this information is important, the last program I installed was, I
believe, AOL 8.0, a few days ago. It has worked fine over the last few
days. Yesterday I registered a program that I had been running for over a
week. This program is called "CleanIt". It's supposed to remove history,
Cookies, etc... I have used it for years on my old windows 98 machine
without a problem.


Next message: To improve the appearance of visual elements, Windows will
automatically adjust your screen resolution. > OK.

Next I got a Windows XP Home Edition screen then a Welcome to Microsoft
Windows screen. Next > Your Name > Finish > Welcome.

What I now have is XP in it's original configuration, but all my files
appear to be intact.

Now I have a BIG job of configuring my machine the way I had it.

Can anyone tell me what the $#@%& happened, and how do I prevent it from
happening again ?????
 
To do a Repair Install you choose the option to Repair Current Windows
Setup. It is after you accept the EULA by pressing F8. Check here
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

You likely pressed the Enter Key after the EULA which brought you to the new
install screen. You were likely offered several reformatting options. Rather
than reformatting you chose the option to Leave present file system intact.
This is a misnomer because really it is simply an option to not format. But
your C:\Windows directory gets overwritten. Essentially you have a fresh
install of XP except your Programs directory is still there as is the My
Documents folder.

We used to do a "clean install" of Windows 9x in a similar way. We would
move everything we wanted saved out of the C:\Windows directory. We would
boot with a Windows 9x Startup disk and run the Deltree command rather than
format. This simply deleted the entire Windows directory. We could reinstall
Windows 9x but still allow ourselves to keep important data "safe" from
being lost due to a format.

In your case you have to reinstall all your apps again and settings because
the registry has been overwritten.
 
You're absolutely right, Harry. I picked the wrong option. I figure it
will take me a week to get my machine back to where it was when I took it
out of the box, then I start from scratch to configure it the way I had it
before. Thank you for the advice. Hopefully it will not happen again, but
if it does, at least I know what to do.

On a related note, someone told me today that the type of problem that I
encountered is not unusual when AOL is installed on Windows XP. Since AOL
was the last program that I installed, I wonder if this is true.
Harry Ohrn said:
To do a Repair Install you choose the option to Repair Current Windows
Setup. It is after you accept the EULA by pressing F8. Check here
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

You likely pressed the Enter Key after the EULA which brought you to the new
install screen. You were likely offered several reformatting options. Rather
than reformatting you chose the option to Leave present file system intact.
This is a misnomer because really it is simply an option to not format. But
your C:\Windows directory gets overwritten. Essentially you have a fresh
install of XP except your Programs directory is still there as is the My
Documents folder.

We used to do a "clean install" of Windows 9x in a similar way. We would
move everything we wanted saved out of the C:\Windows directory. We would
boot with a Windows 9x Startup disk and run the Deltree command rather than
format. This simply deleted the entire Windows directory. We could reinstall
Windows 9x but still allow ourselves to keep important data "safe" from
being lost due to a format.

In your case you have to reinstall all your apps again and settings because
the registry has been overwritten.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp


Babel17DELANY said:
I just tried to boot my fairly new XP machine.
I got a message on the screen that said: NTLDR is missing, press CTR-Alt-Del
to reboot.
Every time I pressed Ctr-Alt-Del I get the same message.
I put in my installation disk & the machine showed a screen that says
Windows Setup.
A line on the bottom says Setup is loading files, then I get a screen that
said Windows XP Home Edition Setup. There are three choices: To set up
Windows XP now, press ENTER
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console,
press R
To quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

I tried "R" and got a list of programs, but I have no idea what to do with
them.

I tried "F3". It said "Windows XP is not completely set up on your
computer. If you quit setup now, you will need to run setup again to
Click to expand...
set
up
Windows XP".

The computer restarted and entered Windows setup again.

I tried set up Windows XP press ENTER.

I picked the choice "Leave the current file system intact (no changes).

It said "Windows is copying files". After several minutes, the yellow bar
reached 100 % and the computer tried to reboot but I got the "press any key
..." I did nothing, and i got a window that said "An Exciting New Look" and
"Setup will complete in approximately: 39 minutes".

During this time it asked me if I wanted to view the configuration and asked
me to type in the name of the computer. I did.

If this information is important, the last program I installed was, I
believe, AOL 8.0, a few days ago. It has worked fine over the last few
days. Yesterday I registered a program that I had been running for over a
week. This program is called "CleanIt". It's supposed to remove history,
Cookies, etc... I have used it for years on my old windows 98 machine
without a problem.


Next message: To improve the appearance of visual elements, Windows will
automatically adjust your screen resolution. > OK.

Next I got a Windows XP Home Edition screen then a Welcome to Microsoft
Windows screen. Next > Your Name > Finish > Welcome.

What I now have is XP in it's original configuration, but all my files
appear to be intact.

Now I have a BIG job of configuring my machine the way I had it.

Can anyone tell me what the $#@%& happened, and how do I prevent it from
happening again ?????
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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