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General discussion

problems reinstalling XP

by lovinguniverse Feb 13, 2009 7:25AM PST

My computer crashed severely this time. I could not run the repair disk or any command I tried in DOS did not fix anything. Luckily I retrieved the most important data using a linux live CD, but still my computer is not restored to working order.

I am trying to reinstall XP but there are unexpected problems. I already reinstalled XP using my recovery CD, and I was hoping to get back to factory settings but far from. I cannot activate the wireless network at all. The button right behind the keyboard is not working and neither will anything I do from "Control Panel" make something happen. Icons in the start menu seams some what streched too.

I tried to run Ubuntu as live CD to check if it would activate the wireless card but no such luck. I even tried to install it as a partition on the harddrive but when I ran the partition editor I got some alarming warnings. It was something like "filesystem on harddisk is rapidly deteriorating", and some action involving Windows I really didn't understand was suggested.

I then thought another clean installation of XP might fix the problem, but running the recovery CD I get all kinds of worrying warnings.

I seams I cannot reinstall XP yet another time, because the operating system is already managing the harddisk. I then tried the option of deleting the hard-drive for then to reinstall XP, but I get a warning that deleting the system-partition might prevent XP from booting and reinstalling. It might be deleting system-files like BIOS that really are difficult to reinstall.

It there any solution to this mess I am in? I really need my computer in working order. I am writing on an atique laptop from 2001 at the moment.

My computer is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo laptop, L 1310 G. It originally came with XP SP2 and has been working just fine until the last few months. A couple of times it had problems booting, and this time nothing I did could fix it.

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2 Posts

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It sounds like it could be

by lacsr Feb 13, 2009 7:34PM PST

A hardware failing. Start with the hard drive. Run a diagnostic to see if the drive is OK. Ultimate Boot CD has a Fujitsu utility if you cannot find it anywhere else.

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Possible Hard Drive failure

by broiled049 Feb 13, 2009 9:36PM PST

I recently had a drive failure that started in much the same way that you're describing, and the HDD failed completly within a couple of days. If possible, back-up as much data as possible from your HDD. Several stores, recently, have had sales on new drives for very good prices. Don't worry about losing the BIOS, that resides on a chip on the motherboard and isn't affected by a HDD failure.

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