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July 1st, 2007 20:00
Reinstalling XP on E521 : error! =(
Hi everyone!
I'm new to these boards and I (hope) I came to the right board to post this...
So..the thing is, my friend's Dell computer E521 got a virus and we couldn't log in to his account anymore. So i suggested to reinstall his computer, because it would be the fastest way, plus he had a lot of junk on it anyway. So he backed up his stuff and I put the DELL recovery cd in...
But the problem was, it wasnt booting from the CD! I guess the boot order was set to hard drive first, but i cant get into the bios to change it! He has a usb keyboard, and it only works AFTER dell POST is finished... To make matters worse, E521 doesnt have PS/2 ports to plug in my keyboard... So I cant get into the bios..
So what I did was, open the case up and look around. I noticed it has sata harddrives and cd drives, so what i did is, i changed around the order it was plugged in. Reboot and yeah..it boots from the CD! So i formatted the hdd and it copied the files over to the hdd. So it auto restarted after its done, but it (re)booted from the CD! So i had to run the format/copy thing all over again. But it keeps rebooting from the cd everytime, like a never-ending loop. I dont have a choice to choose or not to boot from the CD, it just auto-boots from it...
So then what I did was after it finishes copying the files, and reboots, i shut down the computer and removed the cable for the cd drive from the motherboard. So this time, it cant boot from the cd (thank god), but...this message occurs:
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."
I was like what the...
One problem after another...
I've tried everything for hours and hours but no luck...
You guys have any solutions? Help is MUCH appreciated at this point, as my friend and I are tired, plus he only has 1 computer, and desperately need it..
THANKS SO MUCH!
Message Edited by Freebie321 on 07-01-2007 04:03 PM
I'm new to these boards and I (hope) I came to the right board to post this...
So..the thing is, my friend's Dell computer E521 got a virus and we couldn't log in to his account anymore. So i suggested to reinstall his computer, because it would be the fastest way, plus he had a lot of junk on it anyway. So he backed up his stuff and I put the DELL recovery cd in...
But the problem was, it wasnt booting from the CD! I guess the boot order was set to hard drive first, but i cant get into the bios to change it! He has a usb keyboard, and it only works AFTER dell POST is finished... To make matters worse, E521 doesnt have PS/2 ports to plug in my keyboard... So I cant get into the bios..
So what I did was, open the case up and look around. I noticed it has sata harddrives and cd drives, so what i did is, i changed around the order it was plugged in. Reboot and yeah..it boots from the CD! So i formatted the hdd and it copied the files over to the hdd. So it auto restarted after its done, but it (re)booted from the CD! So i had to run the format/copy thing all over again. But it keeps rebooting from the cd everytime, like a never-ending loop. I dont have a choice to choose or not to boot from the CD, it just auto-boots from it...
So then what I did was after it finishes copying the files, and reboots, i shut down the computer and removed the cable for the cd drive from the motherboard. So this time, it cant boot from the cd (thank god), but...this message occurs:
"Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."
I was like what the...
One problem after another...
I've tried everything for hours and hours but no luck...
You guys have any solutions? Help is MUCH appreciated at this point, as my friend and I are tired, plus he only has 1 computer, and desperately need it..
THANKS SO MUCH!
Message Edited by Freebie321 on 07-01-2007 04:03 PM
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Freebie321
2 Posts
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July 2nd, 2007 18:00
I'm really stuck and I need help...
Anyone?
If i posted this on the wrong part of the forum, please guide me!
shesagordie
12 Elder
•
46K Posts
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July 2nd, 2007 20:00
Try using different USB ports, there are USB port on the back panel, that can be used for reinstalling windows.
How to configure Dell Dimension series system to boot to the CD or DVD drive.
How to reinstall XP,
First, you disconnect all the peripherals from the system except the keyboard, mouse and monitor.
Dell's Restallation Guide.
For more help a better board, to post this in, would the Software - Windows XP conference.
Bev.
===================================================
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Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.