Reformat question

[AND1]

I was reformating one of my PCs and I accidently erased all the partitions and restarted without make a new partition for windows. Now when the computer turns on it says error loading os and thats it. F8 or F10 don't work.

Is there anything I can do? I tired to download WinXP boot disk and it work a bit but it didnt find some file which ended in .ini and shut down again. I have no idea what to do. Someone please help me.

[racer-x]

If you have an XP- CD, it is bootable. Insert the XP cd and boot the computer. It should go to XP setup where you can create new partitions and format and install XP.
If it dosen't boot up, then you may have to go into bios set it to boot Cd-ROM.

Good luck!

[AND1]

How do I go into bios?

[racer-x]

Every computer is defferent. In mine I hit delete key when booting up. You may have to hit another key. It may tell you on the screen. It will probably say something like, hit ___ to enter setup.

Good luck!

[gmatov]

And1,
Try the lnk below for an XP boot disk set.
How'd you accidently wipe out your partitions while formatting? I don't know XP, but the other OSs, partitioning is done at a DOS prompt, with fdisk.
If you actually formatted the C:\ drive, rather than another partition, then on boot up, it's looking gor the OS and the MBR, and you seem to have wiped it out. Re-install time.
If you have a boot disk, and can get to an a:\ prompt, you can check to see if there is any data left on your other partitions; you may have wiped them as well. If you are unfamiliar with what you are doing, you better spend a little time reading before you go any further.


http://www.allbootdisks.com/

[AND1]

Hi thanks everyone. I downloaded the boot disks from microsoft and reinstalled winxp.

Everything is ok now but I have one problem. Whenever I start up the computer there are 2 choices to pick from: WinXP pro and WInXP. Pro is the one that works. The other one doesnt work becuase it was messed up from the first problem I had. Is there any way to take that off and let windows boot to pro automatically?

[racer-x]

AND1;

It looks like you didn't format before you installed XP pro. You still have pieces of old XP on your HDD. You have 2 choices. Format and start over. Or you can change the boot sequence.

You could edit the boot.ini file, but there's an easier way. I'm not on my XP system right now, soo I'm just going by memory (wich ain't too good). Right click on "My Computer" and select properties. Look for startup tab, if you don't see it click advanced (it's been a while). When you're in there, you'll see the OS's that boot up. Select XP pro as the first one. You can also set the timeout for the boot screen. The default is 30 sec. If you set it to 0, it will boot first OS without screen. Make sure you have the correct OS as first boot before you set this to 0. I would first try a timeout off 6 sec. If it boots up fine, you can go back in there and change it to 0.

Good luck!

[AND1]

Thanks it worked.

[RabidDog]

or if you edit the same file and take out the line that references the non working copy of xp, the system will automatiaclly boot into the only operating system left, the next time you start up.