Reinstalling Windows & Formatting harddrive

Eddie Brennan

Hey folks.

Last week i got quite a nasty virus on the computer at home. After turning off the PC i tried turning back on and it came up that there was a file corrupted or missing from system 32 and that i had to restore. I restored nand lost all the data on it (well my HD still has the space taken but i couldnt access the files). Im not too worried about losing the data on the HD so i was told to put the windows CD in and restart the computer and that it should prompt me to reinstall windows where i could also format the HD's (theres a C with about 130GB and D with 25GB). However this prompt never came up so from Windows i tried the CD again and from there reinstalled again but it again didnt free up my space and i just lost all the Network Connections i had etc.

Firstly how do i wipe the PC clean and secondly how do i get back the Network Connections. It has both a LAN or whatever the Broadband used and a Wireless but i cant get either back!!

Id really appreciate any advice cos im in a spot of bother!

Eddie

daywalker

When you are running the windows setup from the cd did you pick the quick format or the full format option?

if you tried just quick format, do full format as the quick option only deletes the MBR and resets it to default.

Eddie Brennan

i cant even remember a format option coming up. i dont think any did

daywalker

If windows setup detects another version of windows installed, it usually gives options for replacing the existing system or leaving it as it is(whereby setup will exit), if you choose to replace the operating system, i think it gives you an option for repairing first, or install a fresh copy of windows. if you repaired the operating system it may not have restored the file system table properly, and so you would not be able to access the old data, if you try replacing the OS instead it should give you an option for doing a format. havent done a reinstall of windows in a while so im not sure of the options given .

Eddie Brennan

cheers, was talking to someone whoo told me to go into nthe bios to set the cd drive to run first when i start the PC so ill try that tonight

okee

In the first selection screen you'll see

To setup windows now press ENTER
To Repair... blah blah
To quit without.. blah blah

press ENTER to setup

Then the licensing agreement appears press F8

The Next screen has 3 options
<Before selecting an option make sure that the C:\ partition is selected, use the arrow keys to do this>

To setup windows XP on the selected item Press ENTER
To create a partition....
To delete selected partition ....

Press ENTER to setup XP and on the next screen choose

Format the partition using the NTFS file system
<Note that formatting will delete all your files>

This will format the drive and if theres a problem with the hard drive
you'll soon know if the format can't complete.

If the format completes ok windows will start to setup.

okee

Eddie Brennan

thats exactly wot i was looking for!! thanks man. now i just have to find the driver cd to set up my internet connection!!

MarkR

This might help.

Clicky

Eddie Brennan

this is my mainboard: https://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=300050&view=detailed

i presume this is what the LAN for Broadband came on. Now that i have reinstalled i have no Network Connections apart from the Firewire one. I presume i must have gotten a CD that would install the connection? Problem is i cant find it!! Anyone know what else i could do. Im gonna try find the site of the maker and see if they have downloadable installiation tools etc

daywalker

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/software/swr/spt_swr_list.php?kind=1

look for Live Update, this software interogates the board and provides you with lists of all available drivers and bios/firmware updates for your motherboard.

Eddie Brennan

do i just download them and run them in windows?

Eddie Brennan

right i now have it formatted, reinstalled and some of the drivers installed. theres still about 2 more drivers to do but i have my internet connection back. I tired running the net thru the wireless router by cable, ie cable into router and then another cable from router to PC but it wont work but it does say its connected and when i plug the lead out of the router and directly into the computer it works. i tired the 192.168.1.1 thing that came with the router to get into it to maybe reinstall it but it still wont work but the router is working for the others in the house by wireless. an suggestions? Is there any chance that it wont allow the reinstalled PC and wot should i do. Will i go into the 192.1... from a laptop and reinstall or something?

okcomputer

windows xp should automatically detect your modem if you reboot your PC and then go into network connections in the control panel. Local Area connection should appear and you should be able to right click and enable

if not just ring your ISP (BT ireland by any chance??) and tell them you have lost your internet connection

Eddie Brennan

ill have it all sorted this evening. my driver CD has been found!! this downloading bits wasnt very productive! 1 question though ive reinstalled windows twice now trying to format. got it second time but now there are 3 windows xp options just before windows loads. how do i get rid of them? 2 of them dont work anyway cos i formatted the drive etc

ando

Hi Ed, Paul here

Simplist way to get rid of that menu at startup is to goto the desktop, right click on 'my computer'. Click "advanced', Startup and Recovery 'settings' and then untick 'Time to display list of operating sytems', click ok and that menu should not appear on startup anymore

thetourist

while you're at it here are some good things to do in case you havent thought of them

1. defrag your hard drive before you install any more software
2. download the triall version of advanced uninstaller and use it to defragment your registry ( if it's more than 5% fragmented it can cause pretty serious performance problems and a new op sys install doesnt mean it's not fragmented )
3. you can also use adv uninstaller to fix/check errors in your registry
4. run a full disk scan - right click your main drive - hit tools - error check - select all options and start - then it will tell you it will run next startup - restart
5. put on sp2 if you dont already have it and any other ms updates you feel you can live with - this will protect you against a lot of worms and hack attacks
6. definately install and update some AV software - though i suppose you would have thought of that
7. get a good backup program and set it up - i use pc backup from stomp
8. download the driver backup utility from driverguide.com - it is also handy to have a backup of your drivers
9. there are tons of tweaks you can do www.tweakxp.com to improve performance but on ntfs drives you should disable indexing - it is the worst resource hog i've discovered - http://www.tweakxp.com/article36980.aspx

BopNiblets

Eddie Brennan wrote:

ill have it all sorted this evening. my driver CD has been found!! this downloading bits wasnt very productive! 1 question though ive reinstalled windows twice now trying to format. got it second time but now there are 3 windows xp options just before windows loads. how do i get rid of them? 2 of them dont work anyway cos i formatted the drive etc

You seek C:\boot.ini
It should look like this (open it with Notepad):

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

The last line being the only one you need, you can delete the ones that have been formatted and save the file as boot.ini again, make sure you leave the right one in there!

Mutant_Fruit

but if he formatted, there should be no reference at all to the old windows installations...

okee

okee wrote:

In the first selection screen you'll see

To setup windows now press ENTER
To Repair... blah blah
To quit without.. blah blah

press ENTER to setup

Then the licensing agreement appears press F8

The Next screen has 3 options
<Before selecting an option make sure that the C:\ partition is selected, use the arrow keys to do this>

To setup windows XP on the selected item Press ENTER
To create a partition....
To delete selected partition ....

Press ENTER to setup XP and on the next screen choose

Format the partition using the NTFS file system
<Note that formatting will delete all your files>

This will format the drive and if theres a problem with the hard drive
you'll soon know if the format can't complete.

If the format completes ok windows will start to setup.

okee

im having exactly the same problem except when I come to choosing partition it says there is a windows system already in this partition
and if I press repair it prompts me for an admin password which I dont have
the pc was bluescreening and its not a hardware prob as i ran diagnostics so i decided to reinstall or repair windows

thetourist

m having exactly the same problem except when I come to choosing partition it says there is a windows system already in this partition
and if I press repair it prompts me for an admin password which I dont have
the pc was bluescreening and its not a hardware prob as i ran diagnostics so i decided to reinstall or repair windows

are you sure you're not in the repair console - ( by pressing R ) - a windows repair is a different thing ( easy to get them mixed up - some genius at microsoft ..... )

if you want to repair windows

okee said... To setup windows now press ENTER - > press enter here ( you get an option to repair later on - cant remember if it's actually called repair but i think it is - ( do a google search for help on repairing windows if you need to but it's more or less follow the prompts )
To Repair... blah blah ---> this is referring to the recovery console - different animal altogether
To quit without.. blah blah

ps the rest of okee's instructions are for a full reinstall, not a repair - which will cause you to loose ALL data currently on the disk ( however imo it is a better thing to do if you dont have much to loose on the disk as it completely starts from scratch - i think a repair causes you to loose a lot of stuff anyway - if i'm correct you loose my docs, favourites, desktop, settings, emails in outlook and address book)

check this for the different types of install
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/articles/waystoreinstall/

i wanted to repair windows but when i went into this option it said i needed an admin password so instead i installed windows again on the same partition and lost all of my programs and preferences such a f**king nightmare

anyone have any idea what the admin password is for windows so if this happens again i'l know what to do

thetourist

coolsmileygirl wrote:

i wanted to repair windows but when i went into this option it said i needed an admin password so instead i installed windows again on the same partition and lost all of my programs and preferences such a f**king nightmare

anyone have any idea what the admin password is for windows so if this happens again i'l know what to do

you've GOT to be talking about the admin password in the recovery console - there isnt one - unless you've set one - try hitting return (ie no password ) and you should end up at a dos prompt -- somthing like a black screen with c:\windows\##### or something - to see if im right - if so then just restart the pc without the disk in the drive - if you still blue screen then you might want to reinstall or repair windows --- but i dont know of anywhere in the windows installation where it asks you for a password ( unless maybe your bios does - but that's a different thing ) - in any case; not knowing it could not cause you to reinstall instead of repair - i'm pretty sure you would have to pick this yourself