Window XP set up fails, now what?

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by gworld, Oct 16, 2006.

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  1. #1
    A friend of mine changed job and the new company insisted that he should use a winodw xp professional with their license, so they can be sure it is a legal copy. He started an update from their cd over his own xp professional to change the license. The new update has failed and it just gives a black screen with mouse cursor. I tried the safe mode, black screen with curose and safe mode of 4 corner. repair option let's login to the disk but if you try to copy anything then it just give message that access denied.
    Any idea on how to force install to continue? If he install a new version, will he lose the information on partion D and E also or will it be accessible? is there a way to do the new install but keep the previous user information, so he doesn't need to install all the programs again?
    Any good program to recomend that can save the information on partition c:?
     
    gworld, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  2. timsdd

    timsdd Peon

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    #2
    OYYY! Tell your friend to buy a MAC!! ;)

    Why didn't the companies IT department just change it over for him???

    Not sure how hosed he is, I'd call MS!

    FYI, There is a way to change the license information WITHOUT having to run the setup program...

    the other partitions should be fine provided you don't install to them but I have no idea how to rectify what's been done thus far.
     
    timsdd, Oct 16, 2006 IP
  3. nvidura

    nvidura Well-Known Member

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    #3
    this is not because of serial key or licnse. i think ther is an hardware problem..
     
    nvidura, Oct 17, 2006 IP
  4. GRIM

    GRIM Prominent Member

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    #4
    #1
    Best method would be to yank the hard drive out and put it into a different system, back up any and all files he needs. Then reformat the drive, replace into the original system and do a clean windows install.
    #2
    The information set off of the main partition will NOT be touched when you reinstall, that is part of the beauty of having different partitions that you can simply reformat the main partition to reinstall.
    #3
    You can install windows w/o even reformatting the drive, simply a basic reinstall. You can also change the folder it installs into, this can cause a mess down the road though and I would highly recommend at least reformatting the main partition if possible.

    Disclaimer - I am still waking up ATM, caffeine has not kicked in, err so double check the info above before proceding :D
     
    GRIM, Oct 17, 2006 IP
  5. dkessaris

    dkessaris Peon

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    #5
    One option to save the data would be to use a live Linux CD and an external hard drive. Boot the pc from the cd copy your friends files to an external HDD. There are several Live Linux CDs available that you can use like Slax and many others

    That way if anything goes terrible wrong you have at least a backup
     
    dkessaris, Oct 17, 2006 IP