I: window

d:windows

c:minint

Those are the 3 drive options to restore...obviously this is after i tried to install XP in the earlier post.  I am running chkdsk on the I drive now...its still going...no errors so far.

I had a similar problem a few months ago. I reformatted the c: drive, where BIOS will try to find an OS, then did a clean install of XP. This worked. Your checking the disk for errors was good. Then I reinstalled the virus checker, etc. I was somewhat confused by your reference to J and D drives.

You should say why you are restoring. First thing to check is the hard drive. If it has failed or is failing, everything you do is useless. The Repair option does not work on a failed disk, which makes me think that is your problem. Boot to the xp cd again and this time start the Recovery Console and run Chkdsk   /R to see if the disk can be repaired. If that fails to complete successfully, replace the hard drive. If it completes successfully, then install windows. BTW, when you reformatted the drive you lost the restore capability.

well how do i reformat the c drive?  i cant really get anywhere to format that...the operating system disc doesnt even show a C drive or if it does it has small space and is FAT32.  This has me worried...i hope i can resolve.  thanks for the reply as well :emotion-2:

You should say why you are restoring. First thing to check is the hard drive. If it has failed or is failing, everything you do is useless. The Repair option does not work on a failed disk, which makes me think that is your problem. Boot to the xp cd again and this time start the Recovery Console and run Chkdsk   /R to see if the disk can be repaired. If that fails to complete successfully, replace the hard drive. If it completes successfully, then install windows. BTW, when you reformatted the drive you lost the restore capability.

well i guess that damage is done as far as the recovery goes...but it would not work with repair.  I was not having disk issues or failed disk.  I was trying to restore as it was having serious performance issues and i am not sure what had been installed and things were not working.  so i wanted to restore...well symantec ruined that with the BSOD everytime i tried to run it.  I am trying the Recovery Console option but i do not remember seeing that.  just restore and install XP with the Dell disc provided.

the drives were in raid format and i opened the case unplugged in various orders, tried to get past that symantec thing, but it just keeps going to it.  I want to delete everthing on these hard drives and start fresh...what do i need to do??  Can i even format if i cannot even make it to a dos environment?  Can i format if using the operating system disc?  I am sure some of you guys/gals with lots of exp know a way i can fix this mess.  its just a brick right now...blue screening me to death....so obviously windows is trying to do something, but i cant go safe...its the dell symantic thing (f11) thats killing me and has me stuck.

thanks for the help, but i have it figured out some what and now i need to figure out how to remove the other 2 installs of XP as now i have to select my OS on bootup and the good version is the 2nd option so i have to arrow down. if i can just prioritize that or remove the others, that would be great....now my main drive is (i) and my (c) drive is only like 5 gigs..not sure about that but i dont care...everything works so far and is vanilla install with just XP.

Your C: drive (usually main system drive) has to be larger than 5 GB even if you put the paging file on a different drive. You are not going like my next suggestions:

take the computer to a nearby GOOD computer repair place and let them wipe everything (you said you has backups); redo the BIOS so that the boot sequence is what you want; partition C: to about 30 GB's; then install XP on C. There are other options but this is a good starting place.

so even though my PC is acting perfect and running perfect, i will come across problems with my main drive being (i) instead of (c)?  I figured out how to stop the OS selection with the boot.ini and have gotten rid of that.  Right now everything is excellent and i dont want to mess with anything to make it worse.  What will happen by leaving it (i) i cannot think of anything...but im no techie.

If you use i: as your OS, you are going to need to be aware of things (even though, it will work as is): Adding USB drives could cause assignment problems; 

many programs try to install on C: therefore if it is only 5GB, you could run out of space. As mentioned before. BIOS is usually used to assign boot sequence.

This discussion is more complicated that can be easily explained with a few words, at least by me.