I have a problem too...

[st0rm]

Hello. I recently tried to reformat my hard drive. I used partition magic 8 and it was doing its thing until after it restarted it said something about the deletion process and then went to his screen with f< (uparrow, uparrow, 0, uparrow) [if anyone knows what that means].

Now when I try to install windows xp using the cd. It just goes to that screen. I accessed the BIOS and am sure that CD has top priority, but it just goes to that screen.

I have a Dell Inpsiron 8100, BIOS Ver. A06.

If anyone can help, I would much appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

[meese]

Find out the manufacturer of the hard drive, go to their website and download the utulities for checking the drive. Run the utilitiy that write all zero's to the drive. This will clean the drive completely. You should now be able to install your OS from the CD without any problems.

[st0rm]

ok i will try, thanks very much

[st0rm]

hello again... i have done the full fill zero's with maxtor utility to erase my hard drive and am trying to install windows xp but i get "NTLDR is missing"
i view a solution from microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314057 but that requires the use of windows me startup disk.

i dont have a floppy drive connected to this laptop. i wanna know if theres a short way to resolve this problem or if i will be needing to make a win me startup floppy.

[stroyal]

Don't you also get amessage that the memory has changed or the suspend to disk file is missing.

Also if you did zeros ,your drive should be blank, that artical refers to installing over another operating system.

Did the maxtor program install some system files, maybe?

[originel]

That error message means it can't find something to boot basically. so make sure that your comp is set to boot the cd drive first. also make sure that your XP cd is bootable...otherwise you might need to do a network install or something of the like.

The way hard drives work is they have what's called a Master Boot Record (MBR) and basically a very small program is written to it that tells the computer what to boot...windows installs a small program that tells the computer to boot a file called ntldr, which was deleted when you zeroed your hard drive...that article you found is for a different problem.

[st0rm]

oh. i guess that article does not really apply then, i was just trying to look for a solution.

so what do i need to do to get the windows xp installion going in my current state of "NTLDR is missing" - (how can i get back my MBR?)

is there a way w/o the use of floppy?

[originel]

well...the MBR is always re-written with the installation of windows to fit your current install...

i guess i should clarify...the MBR tells the computer where on the hard drive to boot (kinda forgot those 3 words and they're really important...sorry). It isn't needed to boot your cd drive. Essentially get windows to install and that error message will go away.

Are you absolutely positive that your windows cd is bootable and that your cd drive is set as the first boot device? that would be my guess as to why the install isn't starting

[Ace McGirk]

If you get that error after the install says to "remove the disk and restart" make sure you remove the cd from the drive ,then restart.I have seen this happen a few times,seems the bootloader gets confused if you leave the cd in the drive.

[st0rm]

well ive finally gotten windows xp pro installation to start but during installation i come to

format in ntfs:
cannot do it

when i leave filesystem as is:
Setup has determined that C: is corrupted and cannot be repaired. Setup cannot continue. To quit Setup, press F3

This is after I have done the drive fill w/ zeros and used the windows xp setup disks(6 floppies) to boot from CD. Is my hard drive destroyed somehow? what can i do?

i think i just formatted to ntfs for win xp installation using maxtor utility but im not sure..im gonna see if it works. however, i am skeptical.