if it was a virus, it sounds like the latest one i heard about.. i can't remember the name, rightoff.. it had something to do with windows media player.. supposedly, it wrecks everything so that a reformat is the only solution (that is one account). i have heard of some people allegedly managing to solve the problem without reformatting.. what i am getting to.. did you try doing a clean reinstall of win xp as opposed to a "dirty install"? since you said it was hanging, i would think that you were doing a dirty install.. if it is hanging on a clean install, i would try it a couple of more times. if you need instructions, you can find them in dell support/solutions/reinstall guide (presuming your dell came with win xp) if not, you will have to look up information for a dell that comes with win xp installed (as far as i know). :)
Are you booting from XP CD not from Within Windows , if not set BIOS to boot from CD as 1st choice by pressing F2 during boot (startup) then use Arrow key to select Boot.
Redwolfe_98, some thing does not compute. americaneagle said "I woke up this morning and found out that my computer was reformated". The virus you speak of requires a reformat, but does not do the reformat. If I read this posting correctly, the problem lies elsewhere, possibility a hardware problem. The user should run harware test, to eliminate hardware as the root cause.
You might want to run a diagnostic to see if there is a problem with the hard drive itself. To do this you can press Ctrl + Alt + D at the dell logo just before windows begins to load. You can also run it from the dell diagnostics cd that came with the system. Another thing, when you install windows xp are you might want to make sure that you are delete and have the xp setup recreate the partition on the hard drive. Well I hope this can be of help to you.
A partition is a virtual hard drive created on the hard drive of your computer. As received by Dell, you will have one partition on your hard drive, called C:\ which takes up the entire drive. Using either the Windows XP Reinstallation CD and a clean install or a partitioning program such as Partition Magic, you can break the hard drive into several partitions, C:\, D:\, and so forth, each of which uses a part of the total size of the drive.
Many users prefer to have more than a single partition to segregate parts of their software installation, with the operating system and applications on C:\, data on D:\, games on E:\ and that sort of thing.
Denny... recently an F: drive was created after a windows update ( or as best I can tell) the hard drive is virus free, having been checked with three different sources. The F: drive contains only Dell diagnostic files. Is this the type of partion you're speaking of? If so... do you know what action caused this division and if there is any reason I'd want to fix this, or leave as is? ty.
Sounds like the old "Dell Partition" that Dell uses in the factory. I wasn't aware if they were still using that trick. Anyone else more familiar with it?
The Dell diagnostic partition is approximately 30MB in size and is a FAT partition. It does not appear in Windows Explorer nor in XP's Computer Management. I have never heard of it acquiring a drive letter. It is accessed through pressing F12 during bootup.
I have not heard of anyone downloading anything (particularly from Windows Update) which would alter the partitioning of the hard drive.
Thanks for the information. I have not had that experience since I deleted the FAT partition when I reinstalled Windows. I can't see any reason to delete the partition, although I wonder how one accesses it once it has appeared in the listing.
redwolfe_98
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November 10th, 2003 02:00
americaneagle
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November 10th, 2003 02:00
I have tryed installing several times. The problem is in the GUI Setup it keeps stopping at 14 minutes left...
gryjhnhpe
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2K Posts
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November 10th, 2003 03:00
Are you booting from XP CD not from Within Windows , if not set BIOS to boot from CD as 1st choice by pressing F2 during boot (startup) then use Arrow key to select Boot.
Use this link for Clean Install of XP , if you click on Pictures they Expand for easy view
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
or use this link & 1st Delete existing partition at step 5 for Clean instal
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
or this link & select XP Home or PRO with large pictures
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/
Navin kurian
526 Posts
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November 10th, 2003 03:00
http://www.fdisk.com/home/
http://fdisk.radified.com/
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q255/8/67.asp
msgale
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November 10th, 2003 03:00
gryjhnhpe
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November 10th, 2003 04:00
azap
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November 10th, 2003 08:00
Hello,
You might want to run a diagnostic to see if there is a problem with the hard drive itself. To do this you can press Ctrl + Alt + D at the dell logo just before windows begins to load. You can also run it from the dell diagnostics cd that came with the system. Another thing, when you install windows xp are you might want to make sure that you are delete and have the xp setup recreate the partition on the hard drive. Well I hope this can be of help to you.
Alan
redwolfe_98
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November 10th, 2003 12:00
Message Edited by redwolfe_98 on 11-10-2003 09:36 AM
h20girl
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November 10th, 2003 15:00
may I ask you to explain what you mean by the partition on the hard drive? ty.
Verns600m
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November 10th, 2003 15:00
Denny Denham
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18.8K Posts
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November 10th, 2003 20:00
A partition is a virtual hard drive created on the hard drive of your computer. As received by Dell, you will have one partition on your hard drive, called C:\ which takes up the entire drive. Using either the Windows XP Reinstallation CD and a clean install or a partitioning program such as Partition Magic, you can break the hard drive into several partitions, C:\, D:\, and so forth, each of which uses a part of the total size of the drive.
Many users prefer to have more than a single partition to segregate parts of their software installation, with the operating system and applications on C:\, data on D:\, games on E:\ and that sort of thing.
h20girl
56 Posts
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November 10th, 2003 23:00
jjmspartan
49 Posts
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November 11th, 2003 00:00
Denny Denham
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18.8K Posts
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November 11th, 2003 03:00
I have not heard of anyone downloading anything (particularly from Windows Update) which would alter the partitioning of the hard drive.
Denny Denham
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18.8K Posts
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November 11th, 2003 14:00
Thanks for the information. I have not had that experience since I deleted the FAT partition when I reinstalled Windows. I can't see any reason to delete the partition, although I wonder how one accesses it once it has appeared in the listing.