Help! Very Important Asap!

[Curt]

I am in a bit of a delemia. I haven't reformated since Last Christmas. So I decided that it was time. I was getting tired of all the clutter and all the unused programs. I have an HP Pavillion 6630.. It's pretty old. 2 years I think. Anyway, It's been upgraded in most ways. I am about to get a new PC so this one will just be a spare but I have a HUGE problem. Well many programs. First of all I accidently deleted the boot file under the root directory. I can still reboot/restart but it boots from C:/windows .... I have Windows XP Home UPGRADE ... The PC CAME with Windows 98. I never deleted the old win 98 files either. So, I back-up all my most important files on CD-RW's. Then I try to uninstall Windows XP, because after I uninstall XP I should have 98 then my reformat disk that came with the PC will work. Well ... After a Few minutes of waiting .... I get this :

That's all period. Uninstall stops. I cannot uninstall Windows XP! This is so flusrating. I got fed up so I just decided to "reinstall" windows XP ontop of Windows XP. Not a smart idea I know .. lol but then when I tried to do that "Installing cannot continue because Boot.ini is missing" or something like that. So I am just very flustrated. I have the upgrade edition of XP HOME so I HAVE to have a previous operating system. I just want to reformat my whole PC .. Boot up Win98 via CDROM Disk that came with the PC and reinstall Windows XP . but I CANT! I get this good for nothing BLANK ERROR.. Geez. This is horrible. I'll try one last thing and then I am clueless. I'll do a system restore back to a few months ago and then maybe the boot.ini will show up and then maybe just maybe I can uninstall XP. ANY IDEAS WHATSOEVER PEOPLE!?

Thanks

 

[Bytes Back]

You dont have to have a previous operating system installed

You can just boot with the cd and install from there. I don't know what error your getting, but it has to be a windows error so you cant be doing it right.

Boot with the XP cd in the drive, it will ask you where you want to unstall it. format the partition first, again it will ask you.

Somewhere through the install it will ask for something to upgrade from. give it the 98 cd. it will look at it and you put the xp cd back in and carry on.

 

[Curt]

I have been thru the s*** .. I was correct. XP wasn't uninstalling correctly because it was missing boot.ini .. So I did a search and searched for boot.ini ... and thanks to windows xp I had a boot.ini.backup lieing around So, I change the filename just to boot.ini and like magic I uninstalled XP upgrade. Well this is when the horror BEGINS. It uninstalls and reboots. ... and it will not even boot up .. after many times of trying to start in safe mode, debugging mode and god knows what else [f8] I got the error :

I/O Error accessing boot sector file milti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\bootsect.dos

I was freaking out. I knew it was missing a boot file and therefore wouldn't boot. Noting worked.. I cound't even get DOS up. Well after a few minutes searching in the closet, I FOUND MY OLD 98 BOOT DISK!!!!! WOOPII! So, I start it .. Do the SYS C: command at DOS [Thank God I remembered all that stuff from oldie dos before windows ] and it copied the boot files to the system and I rebooted and now I have Win 98! Without my CD-ROM installed .... and my win 98 format disk is in my CD-RW drive which wilL NOT open ..... So I guess I have to pry it open .. lol . I guess it wont open b/c it's not installed on this OS. Anyway ... I guess I am having bad Karma . or something. How in the world do I get a disk stuck in a CD-RW drive ... need a boot disk .. and see continuious errors? Jesus, If I didn't have that old boot disk I have no clue what I would have done.. lol .. Anyway time to format .... and hopefully everything will work out .

 

[Curt]

This is getting unreal. NOW neither CD ROM is installled. I have to have it installed to format [unless I do it in Dos] and to reinstall XP. So I go install it like everything else .. via CP, Add Hardware and guess what? ... It wants the Drivers .... It wants me to put in the win 98 disk. !!!! This is why I love XP AND HATE 95,98 and anything else. Why in the hell is it going to ASK ME to put in the disk if I am INSTALLING THE CDROM I AM PUTTING THE DISK INTO!? Good Grief. This is getting horrible. I really appreciate your help tho .... I still need more! I seriously thought CD-ROMS were Plug and play? .... I have the disk , but how do I install it if the CD ROM DOESNT WORK? It works, ya know the light comes on, and opens ...... but ... It's not a "drive" so to speak. It doesn't have a letter according to "my computer" .... Help me someone? I'm totally stumped here. I thought about DL'in the drivers ... but ... It's the one that came with the PC and I dunno the name brand ...

 

[allan]

Just go to your bios and change the boot order so your cd is at the top, put the XP cd in the drive and boot. Start the XP installation process and shortly after it begins you'll be given the option to exit and reformat. Then you can do whatever you like. At some point during the installation you'll be asked to insert the CD from a previous OS just to confirm you have it. When you are done remember to change the boot order in your bios back.