Drath

I had to use the repair option on the XP disk because some of my .dlls had been corrupted/edited by some stupid program I installed recently. Unfortunately, after it was done repairing, and it got to the Windows XP install menu, I rebooted my computer because I thought I choose the wrong option; later I found out that menu shows up after the repair has taken place. Now, after I boot my computer I get to that same install screen, except nothing loads, it's just a blue screen (not blue screen of death), just the blue background that the install menu should be over. I also tried repairing it again, and I still can't get into that install menu. I also can't boot in safe mode, and I can't boot normally because it goes right to that install menu (and then doesn't load).

The screen I am referring to is shown on this website: http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm (THE LAST IMAGE).

Done_Fishin

Sounds like you might have a SATA drive but no SATA driver installed ... you'll need to check your Install CD that came with your motherboard or use an SP1 / SP2 version of the XP CD.
as you boot you'll note that there's a prompt at the bottom of the screen that says to press F6 to install any drivers ( sorry don't remember the exact expression .. but it's just after all the files start to load from the CD and way before you get to the point where they ask you what you want to do. Have the driver ready on the Motherboard installation CD or a Floppy Diskette for the install package to find, when asked

Drath

I don't think that has any relevance really because, basically, I interupted Windows while it was trying to install (or was getting ready to install) the repairs, so now it is confused and will not boot up or show the full menu again.

Right now, I have to find a way to trick it into "not" installing the repairs, or atleast boot into windows again, and not into the install menu.

Done_Fishin

I had the same problem on many occasions .. XP assumes that the Disk is IDE until you get to that window you show using a installed driver according to your BIOS setup .. at the 39 minute point it has installed an HDD IDE driver to deal with your disk access, however the driver won't find the drive since there is no IDE drive to boot from, resulting in the system hanging or crashing.

Check out what type of disk is installed in your PC and if you find I am right just find the correct ICH driver for your motherboard and hit that F6 button at the prompt just after booting from CD. You'll be amazed at the difference. SP1/SP2 CD's should have the driver but the original CD's didn't.

Drath

Well the reason why I don't think this is my problem is because I DID get to the menu in the first place, it's just everytime i've tried to get back to it, I get the blank screen.

I'll probably end up trying to back-up everything and reformat. I just do not want to. I have like 400gigs atleast of stuff I want to keep, and probably won't be able to, unless I go buy like a terabyte drive. Do you think it's possible that I buy a new hard, set it as the master drive, and then install windows on there?

Done_Fishin

Is it that difficult to check to see what type of drive you have ?? If it has a wide flatcable then it's IDE .. if it has a fairly narrow flat cable then it's SATA ..

what do you have to lose by trying ? What do you have to gain by trying ??

You must think I know less than you do about PC's in order to want to disregard the advice that I am giving.

Never mind .. I gain nothing by trying to help you ...

Drath

I'm sorry, you obviously know more than me :P (Hence why I am posting). I do have 2 SATA hard drives installed. The computer in question is a Dell, there was no motherboard disk supplied. I'm not sure it even says which motherboard it is in the manual it came with. When pressing the F6 button in the menu it says it could not determine the type of my mass storage devices. I have the choice to specify additional devices manually by pressing "S" otherwise I can not specify any additional devices.

But like I said, I don't have any additional disks for drivers. I also don't have a floppy drive (which it seems to need?).

I understand the relevance now :).

Done_Fishin

Dell's usually have a service tag label which can be used on Dells web-site to locate drivers and hardware info about the PC it was issued for.
Quite frequently they also have a partition that allows one to restore the PC configuration to the original condition .. KEEP AWAY from it unless you want to lose everything on your drive and reset to original factory condition.
Take a look at the dell site for the SATA driver or give me the service tag number for your pc and I will look to see what you should download.
Since it's late here I will pick it up tomorrow if no other tech from TSF picks it up to help in the meantime

Drath

5WZP581. Thanks for your help.

I'm guessing it's this page:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...WW1&hidlang=en

This looks like it all relates to having a floppy drive though. Is there a way to load the drive in windows setup through CD-ROM?

Drath

Depending on what you say tomorrow, I am going to buy a USB floppy drive to install the driver. I am planning to use this fix: http://www.msfn.org/board/F6-Driver-...py-t82711.html . Or maybe I should just stick with a internal?

Done_Fishin

from experience windows will look for the floppy at either a:, b: or it will search for the driver on CD ROM ..

When booting from CD to install XP , the CD ROM is designated a: drive which will only leave you the b: drive
If you can write the drivers to a CD, you can temporarily remove the Install CD from the CD ROM and replace it with the CD that has the drivers on it, as soon as it has the drivers, replace the install CD again.


Just went to see your "fix" looks like a great way to allow windows to recognise a USB Floppy but you may need to find & substitute some "code" if the drive you are using isn't in the list ..

The SATA driver will probably have another file with similar stuff in it .. and they could probably be merged if you have sufficient experience at that type of thing, which unfortunately I haven't .

Drath

When I tried it, it says it would only look at A:, which I assume is always reserved for floppy? I'll just buy a normal floppy I think. I'll get back to you in a bit. As for the driver, is the second one on the list the one I am looking for? I'm assuming I unzip/extract the files from the dell.exe and then just place all those files on the disk in the root?

dai

have you tried safe mode

Done_Fishin

he is locked into repair install and locks up here

dai

took some finding
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;828267

Drath

Well it actually locks up before there, it locks up when it loads the background for that menu.