Liqid

12 Posts

1575

December 4th, 2004 18:00

No access to Win XP (log in)

Ok so my aunt completely messed up the PC i have here for her to use. She downloaded one of these "Free" screen savers - and it started a malicious issue- Not getting into that...lets move on.

I have deducted that it would be best for me to simply wipe clean her complete hard drive and re-install win xp on the system.

I can then install my anti malware programs when its running again

but

in her infinate lack of wisdom with computers - she was trying to fix the problem only to have chaged her "LOG IN DETAILS" that shows up when anyone starts windows XP

Im not talking about her USER LOG IN DETAILS - because that shows up when windows is already loaded

Im talking about juts as the DOS has finished booting - there a screen that says

"USER NAME - PASWORD"

when you install it first - all you do is click ENTER leaving everythig blank and it will go on to load windows.

But now, she messed up, she added SOME kinda detail to that log in screen and cant remember what it was-

i tried all types of passwords etc that she has said it "COULD BE"

i decided that i need to simply deleted EVERYTHING from her system

If i cant get passed that screen,,,,,,,,,,how would i do it?

Responses(4)

S

Shadow84

18 Posts

0

December 5th, 2004 01:00

If you are positively 100 percent absolutely and totally sure you want to do a fresh clean install of Windows it would be a good idea to read a basic tutorial on the subject. In general you will have to enter BIOS and change the boot sequence so that the CD ROM is the first boot device. Then you will need to place you Windows installation disc in the drive and when the computer re-boots the Windows installation will begin.
FWIW after you get this computer up and running you may want to set up a limited account for your aunt and set up a password protected administrator account for yourself to avoid this problem in the future. Good luck and ditto on your signature.

Liqid

12 Posts

0

December 5th, 2004 01:00

thanks shadow for your info

but i did more searching and found out that this pc had win ME orginally on it- (its her PC)

and she had a "neighboor" load XP over it

so the recovery discs that i have in had are for win ME-

so i asked about backups for the XP platform and her reply "back-ups?"
as if she had never heard that word befor-

S

Shadow84

18 Posts

0

December 5th, 2004 18:00

Well Liqid the plot thickens. Are you saying your aunt was using an illegal copy of XP? If so are you going to turn her in to Bill Gates' gestapo? LOL Making backups are something we all seem to learn from the old school of hard knocks. Seriously, you are a very good neice or nephew for helping.

Liqid

12 Posts

0

December 6th, 2004 18:00

hold on - let me check -- yep- im a nephew (WHEW!)

never the less - yes it seems she got a neighboor (wuth the same lack of PC understanding) to place XP over her WinME

although both versions were LEGAL copies except for the fact that the version of XP was NOT intended for her PC

also - after searching further - she never checked the DELL website or icrosoft to see that HER SYSTEM would handle using XP as an upgrade LOL

so BUMPS to her then huh? haha

ok ok

so here i have a new question - and ill probably just post a new thread about it but

Heres what i can do

i can take her hard drive out of her system

place it in MY system and use my tower to FORMAT her drive deleting it of all content

then i can place Win ME back on it after placing it back into her PC tower

that should work yes?

but i think theres something ill need to do to the bios or drive setup on my system befor or during the process so my system will continue to recognize my main drive will always be the 1st DRIVE

"location location location"

any ideas? tjhoughts ? hit me

thanks

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