Help from the computer pros plz

[Bailey_1260]

Came home tonight and the family computer has "broken" and im trying to sort it.

Basically turn the machine on and it runs the boot system as usual up till the windows splash screen would come on at this point it says to insert systm disk and press enter.

we were never supplied any OS software with the computer which i complained about when it was bought.

However the missuses brother uses the computer most of the time and downloads no end of crap and always spouts crap about "how s**t is windows" and "linux is better" he uses this computer as his own one is "bouked" (found out he wiped the hard disk when trying to install a new OS)

Does it sound like he has done it again or is it an easy fix?

Cheer Bailey

 

[BenWall]

Don't let him use your PC, he sounds like he wants to know it all but doesn't know jack.

Im not sure, but off the top of my head it sounds like hes tried to install something like a OS and fucked it up half way through, now its asking the the XP cd to continue the setup. Could be wrong though.

 

[Brand86]

It doesn't sound good...he might be buying you a new OS if you don't have one on disk...

 

[Alex H]

If you've got any old windows disk lying around put it in and let it think it's going to install then just quit before it does. It should repair the master boot record which is what sounds like is damaged.

 

[Mike_182]

May have formatted the disk - you'll definately be needing a windows disk.

 

[dick]

May have formatted the disk - you'll definately be needing a windows disk.

sounds like it, the stuff in the bios is ok, when it goes to load off HDD cant find it.

woops.

get tinyXP platinum2 on it instead and watch it flllyyyy

 

[KDF]

Install linux.






Or if you must...

Download a copy of windows XP off the net and use the serial from the sticker that should be on the side of your computer. Make sure its the same version of XP that you had originally.

You could try a system repair before doing a full re-install though.

 

[Brand86]

And then kill your gf's brother for messing it about...I would be VERY annoyed if someone a. was playing with stuff like that on my PC and b. left it for me to sort out!

 

[Homer-Simpson]

I am guessing you bought the machine from a shop and didn't build it yourself. What make/model is the PC? If you download a copy of XP off of the net you might have trouble using your serial number that is on the side of your case (unless you can find an image of one for your make of PC).

There could be a few things you could do before going down the format route. You could try using a boot disk, then view the drive that had your windows partition on. He might have just edited your boot.ini/deleted it. You could also get hold of ERD Commander, that should help you diagnose the issue too.

Have you checked to make sure your hard drive is actually connected and he has not unplugged it? Have you asked him what he has done? It could be quite a few things, it is quite hard to diagnose when you are not infront of it

 

[@Spoonie]

Go back to whoever you bought it from. They have to provide you with a means to recover the machine as part of their OEM agreement.

 

[fastwunz]

WHOA! slow down people - surely it would be best to go into the BIOS and check the boot priority to make sure that the Hard Drive with windows on it is actually the FIRST boot device? - then to make sure that floppy and CdRom are not on the list?

 

[Galzzly]

WHOA! slow down people - surely it would be best to go into the BIOS and check the boot priority to make sure that the Hard Drive with windows on it is actually the FIRST boot device? - then to make sure that floppy and CdRom are not on the list?

This would only matter if there was something in either of those drives first anyway. If there isn't it would move onto the HDD (providing that it is actually on the list)

 

[Homer-Simpson]

WHOA! slow down people - surely it would be best to go into the BIOS and check the boot priority to make sure that the Hard Drive with windows on it is actually the FIRST boot device? - then to make sure that floppy and CdRom are not on the list?

He should really be asking the guy what he did in the first place. Once he has done that, chop off his hands or something so he cannot do it again

 

[Mike_182]

Just read an article that a new rootkit has been wiping MBRs on Windows XP machines - you may like to try getting hold of a boot disk with 'fdisk' on it to run fdisk /mbr (or whatever today's equivalent is!) to repair it...

 

[Bailey_1260]

Where to get boot disks from as from microsoft you can only download ones to floppy and both machines use CD boot for their master boot system.

Tried asking what went wrong and i got a story that obviously was in fantasy land.

Also how to enter BIOS upon boot its like F5 or something right?

 

[ViolentJ]

http://www.arsgeek.com.nyud.net:8080/?p=3340