More Booting Problems

[lookout0238]

Hey Hey,

Yesterday I was stupidly fooling with my computer and trying to reinstall Windows XP, but when I tried to use the disc that came with the computer, it skipped a bunch of files that it said it couldn't find even on numerous searches and it said it might cause problems without these files.

I've encountered problems.

I can't even get the system to boot up nor can I get back to the Install Windows screen. After it boots, the screen freezes and the message

"STOP: c0000221 unknown hard error
\systemRoot\system32\ntdll.dll"

appears.

How can I get back to the Install Windows screen, at the least, so I can try to reinstall windows again and maybe get this computer working again?

Thanks for any help you can offer. I'd appreciate any advice.

 

[mechBgon]

If the Windows CD is a proper Microsoft-made Windows CD, then it's bootable. You would put it in the CD-ROM drive and hopefully the computer will simply say "Press any key to boot from CD..." and you hit Enter and it starts Setup. Is that the routine you were already doing before? If so, examine your CD-ROM for scratches, fingerprints/smudges or whatever. If it's ok, maybe your CD-ROM drive is failing.

More info about the computer might help too. Is it a pre-built or custom? Specs?

 

[lookout0238]

It's an old Gateway 2000, but the disc I used to install Windows XP is from my Dell. It had already worked once, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem.

Thing is though, the machine is not asking whether I want to boot from the disk or the hard drive, or install windows, or any of that when I insert the disc. It gets to the Windows XP Home Edition booting screen and then immediately goes to a royal blue screen with the information stated above there.

I'm utterly confused.

 

[Harvey]

Did you set the boot sequence in your CMOS to look first for the CD-ROM?

I hope you don't have any data you need to save, but if you keep having problems, you may want to wipe out the whole partion on the drive. You can get DELPART.EXE. It's a real Microsoft utility that you can use from a bootable floppy to delete an NTFS partiton on your drive. Unless you have more than one partition, it will simply unformat your drive so it looks like a new drive to your installation disk.

You may also be having problems because the Dell disk may not like finding Gateway hardware.

 

[lookout0238]

How do I set the boot sequence to look first for the CD-ROM?

And I put DELPART.EXE on a floppy disk, but how can I boot from the floppy? It doesn't read that either before going to the royal blue screen of doom and freezing.

 

[Harvey]

I don't know your board or your CMOS, but most of them have an option to set the boot sequence somewhere in the advanced settings.

If you don't know how to get into the CMOS Start by booting the machine. On most machines, you hit <Esc> when it first starts up to get to the CMOS, but I think I recall that Gateway's use <F1>, instead.

To use DELPART, it has to be on a bootable floppy. You can make one from Win 98, or if you have another bootable floppy with a program on it, you can save the actual program info on another disk, and delete everything but the DOS boot info, including MSDOS.SYS, IO.SYS (both hidden) and COMMAND.COM.

You said the machine's an old Gateway. Do you have any floppies that came with that? If so, one of them may be a bootable floppy.

Try getting it to boot from the CD, first. It'll be less hassle if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[lookout0238]

It hasn't worked yet, but thanks for all your help anyway. I changed the drive order, but that didn't work and I still can't get it to load solely from the floppy... but I appreciate all the help anyway.

Thanks so much.