Need to reinstall XP on Dell Mini 10 - arrgggH!

[ghh]

I succesfully got 10.6 installed on Dell mini 10 - worked great. But now I really need to use this netbook with a windows XP program, so I need to reinstall XP. I have the reinstall disks - but I keep running into the same problem. I have the restore disk from dell, and a usb dvd drive. I can get to the XP install screen, I can get to "Choose a partition" and I think I borked it at this point. I deleted all of the partitions, until there was just one large unformatted partition. Then I went back through and chose that unformated partition, then the disk asked to format the partition - I clicked ok, and it looked like it was copying windows files to the Hard drive, but when it was done, I restart and disconnect the usb dvd drive, and the netbook trys to start up but ends with "No operating system found"

I have tried to mess with putting the HD at the first position in BIOS, restoring the default system settings in bios, and repeated everything above twice.

Any advice as to what I am messing up, please help.

Thanks

 

[crazypillsmcgee]

I succesfully got 10.6 installed on Dell mini 10 - worked great. But now I really need to use this netbook with a windows XP program, so I need to reinstall XP. I have the reinstall disks - but I keep running into the same problem. I have the restore disk from dell, and a usb dvd drive. I can get to the XP install screen, I can get to "Choose a partition" and I think I borked it at this point. I deleted all of the partitions, until there was just one large unformatted partition. Then I went back through and chose that unformated partition, then the disk asked to format the partition - I clicked ok, and it looked like it was copying windows files to the Hard drive, but when it was done, I restart and disconnect the usb dvd drive, and the netbook trys to start up but ends with "No operating system found"

I have tried to mess with putting the HD at the first position in BIOS, restoring the default system settings in bios, and repeated everything above twice.

Any advice as to what I am messing up, please help.

Thanks

Try going to windows restore panel and then prompt and try

To repair the Master Boot Record of the boot disk:
fixmbr

To write a new partition boot sector to the system partition:
fixboot

To rebuild the boot.ini configuration file:
bootcfg /rebuild

 

[ghh]

>>Try going to windows restore panel and then prompt and try

Cant get to Windows - trying to reinstall

>>>To repair the Master Boot Record of the boot disk:
>>>fixmbr

Tried this via dos prompt via "Repaira windows XP installation using recovery Console" from install disk -

>>>>To write a new partition boot sector to the system partition:
>>>fixboot

Same as previous

>>>>To rebuild the boot.ini configuration file:
>>>bootcfg /rebuild

And did this as well as above - no change in attempt to start up - still get "No operating system found"

Thanks

 

[crazypillsmcgee]

>>Try going to windows restore panel and then prompt and try

Cant get to Windows - trying to reinstall

>>>To repair the Master Boot Record of the boot disk:
>>>fixmbr

Tried this via dos prompt via "Repaira windows XP installation using recovery Console" from install disk -

>>>>To write a new partition boot sector to the system partition:
>>>fixboot

Same as previous

>>>>To rebuild the boot.ini configuration file:
>>>bootcfg /rebuild

And did this as well as above - no change in attempt to start up - still get "No operating system found"

Thanks

Looks like a total reformat, that sucks!

 

[ghh]

Does a "total reformat" make it unable to use the restore disk? Any other advice?

Im kinda desperate to get this working in the next 2 days.

Thanks

 

[crazypillsmcgee]

Does a "total reformat" make it unable to use the restore disk? Any other advice?

Im kinda desperate to get this working in the next 2 days.

Thanks

Download Gparted, burn the iso, bootfrom the disc.

Select every partition other than your restore and delete them so it's unallocated space.

Then do your restore, should work a treat. Don't format anything as NTFS, just leave the non restore partitions blank.

It will rename the system partition and should work.

 

[ghh]

Awesome - thanks for advice - will do it as soon as I get home tonight.

I really appreciate it.

Greg

 

[crazypillsmcgee]

Awesome - thanks for advice - will do it as soon as I get home tonight.

I really appreciate it.

Greg

Good luck.

 

[ghh]

I used Gparted - it showed the large NTFS partition that I assume is where the windows installer is is installing windows files and a tiny (8 MB) unformatted partition. There werent any other partitions. Still didnt work. So I tried to delete everything with Gparted, then reinstalled, and still, ends up saying "Operating system not found"

??

 

[crazypillsmcgee]

I used Gparted - it showed the large NTFS partition that I assume is where the windows installer is is installing windows files and a tiny (8 MB) unformatted partition. There werent any other partitions. Still didnt work. So I tried to delete everything with Gparted, then reinstalled, and still, ends up saying "Operating system not found"

??

Sounds like you need to flatten it, unless there are some pros here that no something else, but it sounds like it's toast. If you tried rebuilding your MBR and BCD and it won't boot or restore, I would say it's corrupted beyond repair.