Format then install WIN XP Home

theyardie · #1 05-04-2005, 08:17 AM

Hi, Been having a bad day, got my last post all muddled, heres the real story

I'm currently using Win 2000 pro which was installed over Win 98. I think I have a virus as when I start the PC I get active desktop recovery then an error message Authorised by NT Authority it tells me) which then tells me my Pc will now restart.
I can start in safe mode, I cant connect to the internet to do anything about the virus.. so I want to reformat for a fresh install of Windows XP home as you cant install over 2000 Pro...
I get to the recovery console and get as far as 'All non removable data blah blah...' Y to proceed with format and after a few seconds the WINNT prompt appears again... like a bad penny..
Am I doing something wrong as I seem to of tried most things this past week and its now driving me slightly mad... I tried to do the FDISK but it tells me I dont have a partition to delete...It is also NTFS not Fats...Help me please!!!

qwerty12 · #2 05-04-2005, 10:39 AM

boot off 2000 disk. go up to the part where it tells u where to install 2k/or to create a partition. delete the partition from there

BTW win2k is better than xp home ( only xp pro rivals it) and u got the sasser virus i think

Miz · #3 05-04-2005, 10:51 AM

If you'd rather install XP, boot with the XP CD in the CD drive. It has the utilities to partition and format the drive.

For future reference, you can stop the shut down so you can get it fixed: As soon as Windows is loaded, go to Start>Run, type in "cmd" (without the quotes), click OK, then type "shutdown -a" (without the quotes, with the space before the hyphen), press the Enter key.

Jazz · #4 05-04-2005, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theyardie

Hi, Been having a bad day, got my last post all muddled, heres the real story

I'm currently using Win 2000 pro which was installed over Win 98. I think I have a virus as when I start the PC I get active desktop recovery then an error message Authorised by NT Authority it tells me) which then tells me my Pc will now restart.
I can start in safe mode, I cant connect to the internet to do anything about the virus.. so I want to reformat for a fresh install of Windows XP home as you cant install over 2000 Pro...
I get to the recovery console and get as far as 'All non removable data blah blah...' Y to proceed with format and after a few seconds the WINNT prompt appears again... like a bad penny..
Am I doing something wrong as I seem to of tried most things this past week and its now driving me slightly mad... I tried to do the FDISK but it tells me I dont have a partition to delete...It is also NTFS not Fats...Help me please!!!

Read the following very carefully. If in doubt, print it out: -

Clean Install Windows XP

Lambda_Core · #5 05-04-2005, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theyardie

Hi, Been having a bad day, got my last post all muddled, heres the real story

I'm currently using Win 2000 pro which was installed over Win 98. I think I have a virus as when I start the PC I get active desktop recovery then an error message Authorised by NT Authority it tells me) which then tells me my Pc will now restart.
I can start in safe mode, I cant connect to the internet to do anything about the virus.. so I want to reformat for a fresh install of Windows XP home as you cant install over 2000 Pro...
I get to the recovery console and get as far as 'All non removable data blah blah...' Y to proceed with format and after a few seconds the WINNT prompt appears again... like a bad penny..
Am I doing something wrong as I seem to of tried most things this past week and its now driving me slightly mad... I tried to do the FDISK but it tells me I dont have a partition to delete...It is also NTFS not Fats...Help me please!!!

I replied in your earlier muddled thread.
if you can't delete the partition get PowerMax 4.09 anywhere from the net, it's free and the installer puts files on a floppy. insert that floppy in boot up and make sure the floppy drive is first in the boot sequence. Powermax is a low level formatter that goes about deleting everyting on the hard drive, partitions, viruses, worms, windows, linux everyhing without stopping. Windows reformats usually take out the file allocation tables and the data and possibly the virus may still reside on the HD. well, if nothing works, give this a try.

theyardie · #6 05-05-2005, 07:38 AM

Thanks for all your replies......I have tried to boot from win 2000 cd and it says 'cannot boot from cd : code 4 ' ...it just re installs and I never seem to get to the bit where I can delete partition....

I cannot boot from the Xp CD as apparently you cant install XP home over Win 2000 Pro... and I get error messages about the dynamic link library dll etc etc...

Its so frustrating as I am a self taught have a goer and I dont really understand all the jargon!! Although I understand alot more now, having been into my bios and every little corner of my PC

How do I go about putting the Powermax on a floppy? I may give that a try as nothing else seems to get me to the right place!!
Thanks again for your patience!

theyardie · #7 05-05-2005, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lambda_Core

I replied in your earlier muddled thread.
if you can't delete the partition get PowerMax 4.09 anywhere from the net, it's free and the installer puts files on a floppy. insert that floppy in boot up and make sure the floppy drive is first in the boot sequence. Powermax is a low level formatter that goes about deleting everyting on the hard drive, partitions, viruses, worms, windows, linux everyhing without stopping. Windows reformats usually take out the file allocation tables and the data and possibly the virus may still reside on the HD. well, if nothing works, give this a try.

Well I gave it a go and I have copied it to a floppy so I can give it a try, thanks for your help! I'll let you know how I get on

theyardie · #8 05-06-2005, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theyardie

Well I gave it a go and I have copied it to a floppy so I can give it a try, thanks for your help! I'll let you know how I get on

Hi again..sorry to be a pain, but how do I get the Powermax running as I put it in the A drive but can't seem to get anything to work on it, Cheers

Jazz · #9 05-06-2005, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theyardie

I cannot boot from the Xp CD as apparently you cant install XP home over Win 2000 Pro...

Are you using an XP upgrade CD??? If so, you can acheive a 'clean installation' of XP, using an XP upgrade disk, as per the link in my initial post. All you'll require is a qualifying Win98/Me/2000 CD. You have the W2K disk, so go ahead and clean install................

Just read the instructions carefully. If in doubt, print them out..........

Clean Install Windows XP

EDIT: Don't forget to backup all important data first.

qfisheye · #10 05-07-2005, 11:52 PM

What I would suggest is to find out which brand hard drive you have. Lets say it's a western digital. Go over your friends house( I assume you have a friend HA). Go to the wd site and download the hard drive install program. This will boot and set up the hard drive in your system to be used with thw operating system you choose(5 minutes). Now you're ready to install with no problems. GOOD LUCK