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Problem reinstalling windows XP after hard drive failure.
Dell E310
Had a hard drive failure so I replaced the hard drive. I have the CD's that Dell preloaded on the computer. IE: OS disks, drivers disks, ect. While loading windows I get an error, it says "insert windows XP professional service pack 2 CD. File "asma" on Windows XP professional Service Pack 2 CD's needed D:\I386 "
Problem is I only have a disk that says "reinstallation DVD Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2" isn't this all I need? I don't have XP professional. I don't understand what it is looking for. Is my reinstallation CD from Dell BAD??
TIA
dave51_2fe887
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December 26th, 2008 08:00
Hi tgrutt,
First off Windows XP Media Center Edition is XP Professional. I have seen the issue of it asking for second disc, but not alot of answers.
I believe when MCE first came out it was on two CD's but since yours is on DVD i would try cycling cd tray (open and close agian) with same
disc. This is what i found at Microsoft.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555479
tgrutt
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December 26th, 2008 11:00
I tried the cycling the cd tray and it does not work. It it still asking for the XP professional Service pack 2 CD no matter how many times you cycle it and click OK. Thanks for the heads up on the XP media Center Edition being the same as XP Professional...
I will try to format the Hard Drive and start over again....
dave51_2fe887
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December 26th, 2008 12:00
Ok, maybe your install disc is XP MCE sp1, and it needs a file from sp2 to install.
You could download SP2 at the link below and burn to a CD, and try that when asked for second disc.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
tgrutt
10 Posts
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December 28th, 2008 09:00
Well, I tried downloading the file to a CD and tried it. Didn't work. For what it's worth, I also have a SP 2 disk from Microsoft and that didn't work either :( Looks like the recovery CD's from Dell just are not cutting it?? The computer is out of warrenty and dell won't even talk to me unless I purchase an extended warrenty. For the money I'd be better off buying a copy of XP professional.....
If you have any other ideas I'm open to suggestions...
Thanks for the help dave5
jackshack
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December 28th, 2008 11:00
I'm afraid you will need the Win XP Pro SP2 disk. The way I understand this is supposed to work is that you use the Media Center DVD to partition the disk since a special partition is required. Once the disk has been partitioned you need to use the Windows XP Pro installation CD to install the operating system. The Media Center DVD is then used to finish things up.
If you are in the US, you can request the Win XP disk as a replacement using this form: Request Replacement Disks.
DELL-Larry R
1.7K Posts
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December 29th, 2008 13:00
Basically, you boot from the Dell Media Direct CD which partitions the drive and sets the MBR with the special settings for Media Direct works, then after you install Windows (by booting from the XP CD or Vista DVD) you run the Media Direct CD again (from in Windows) so it can "fix" the MBR changes Windows made.
tgrutt
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January 8th, 2009 18:00
Alright to make a long story short I started getting some random things happening even with Western Digitals Lifeguard data CD. So I let it sit a couple of days just to think about stuff off and on...................
The problem was the DVD ROM must have been bad also. I switched it out with another DVD ROM I had and had everything up and running within an hour and a half. Go figure when it rains it pours.
I would like to thank everyone for their time, suggestions and insight. Oh and the Dell restore CD's are just fine I even used the orginals to reload the OS without a hitch. Sorry for bashing on Dell I was just frustrated.
DELL-Larry R
1.7K Posts
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January 9th, 2009 11:00
Nothing to apologize for. It was pretty obvious you just wanted to get things working again. :emotion-1:
I'm glad to hear it was something as (relatively) simple as getting the DVD drive replaced.