I think I have made a big mistake...

[jeannot18]

This is my first post and I will try to be as clear as I can.

I have got a PC, running Win98 (well until now that is). I thought that I would upgrade to XP Home Edition. So I placed the CD into the drive and there it went.

What is happening now is for some UNKNOWN reasons XP intalled itself onto my D:/ drive (my 40gig HD is split into 2). Therefore when the PC boots I have got choice of running Win98 or XP (and i did not want to do that believe me!). When I am on XP there is no programs installed, but when I am in Win98 the program are still there (all of them installed under C:/Program file/).

I am not to sure what I want to do but I am not happy with this setup, I think that I would like to remove XP from the D:/ drive. How do i do that without messing the whole PC? Shall I format the D: drive? If anyone could put me in the right direction it would very much appreciated.

JC

[rjfvillarosa]

Do you know how to enter the BIOS of your machine?

[bailey]

what you did was to install it as a dual boot system, it is not a bad thing to do, infact there is a lot of people doing that, I also am dual booting w98 and xp.
you can format the d: drive to get rid of xp, but you will still have the boot menu and a second drive of d.
what is it exactly that you want to do,
install xp as a fresh new installation, and reinstall your other programs ?

do you have a full version of xp or is it a upgrade one

[Panama Red]

What is your ultimate goal? Do you want to end up with just XP installed? Do you have files/data that you want to keep? Which drive are they on? Is this an XP upgrade disk or a full Retail or OEM disk?

[jeannot18]

My ultimate goal would be to keep XP, but have all my programs (i am not worry if I need to reinstall them) but I have some data that I want to keep. I have started to backup some of it. I am not keen on the Dual Boot thingy. I have a clean copy of XC Home Edition.
Thanks guys
JC

[Panama Red]

Here's what I would do. Save all your data on backups as you are now. Plan on wiping the drive clean. Boot from the XP cd and select New Installation not Recovery Console. When you are given a second option to repair or do a fresh install, select the New Installation. When you get to the point where you can select which partition/drive to install to, choose to delete the partitions. Delete each partition until you have all unpartitioned space. This will wipe the drive and allow you to create a new partition(s) and do the fresh install.

You can also save your Favorites from your current installtion if you wish and move them to the fresh installation.

To boot from the XP CD you need to restart the system and access the bios to ensure that your CD/DVD drive is set as the first boot device. The save the bios changes, insert the XP cd and let it boot from the cd.

[jeannot18]

Hi Panama Red, when you said that will wipe the disk clean you are not talking about formatting the HD before hand and then installing the OS?

I am not too sure about the BIOS thing, are you saying that when the machine is rebooting I should access the BIOS (do you hit F8 btw?).

What I am scared of is that this my only machine, with access to the Internet, if i mess up than i am screwed up.
Thanks
JC

[Panama Red]

What are your system specs? Brand/model of your computer. Need that to determine which key you use to access the bios. When the computer first starts up you may see an option to press a certain key to access Setup. That is the same as the bios. Deleting the partitons will have the same effect as reformatting. When you create the new partition, select the NTFS format for your XP install.

[foolishone]

That's exactly what he is saying, format the HD. Come on, how many times are you going to format the hard drive (if you don't do it regularly), best to do a fresh one at re/new install.

To get into BIOS, use the hot keys, usually displayed during boot. I forget what the default is, but usually they are DEL or F12, maybe F4?

F8: I think that boots into Safe Mode

^fo

[jeannot18]

Thanks guys, another issue I would like to raise. My Internet connection is through broadband. Do I need a special software once XP is installed to reset it? When I took the broadband an engineer came and did everything so I am not too sure about that (he never left me any disk). I apologised for being so thick but like I said once i go ahead I want to be sure that my PC is going to function properly, or at least that i will have access to the Net just in case I need to ask some more question. Thanks very much

JC

[Marke522]

No, you won't need any software to access broadband if you have a cable modem. If you use DSL you might. My mom needs to log in with her DSL ISP, but my cable is automatic. If you have to log in to access the net, then have your ISP send you a support disc or arrange for a tech to come out and set up your pc again.

Windows will install all the drivers for the hardware that you need, you won't need to worry about anything unless you are trying to use a real old printer or scanner and the company is no longer in business. I have an Acer scanner that kinda works when it wants to. Everything else is just fine.

Write down or back up this website address so you can find your thread again. We would like to know how things progress.

Don't be scared, with XP it's kinda hard to mess things up. It does all the work for you.

[jeannot18]

OK guys many thanks for the help, I will keep you updated (fingers crossed)

JC

[GraemeM]

sorry this may have been answered, I didn't read the posts

With dual boots the program installs on one OS only

Having a dual boot isn't a bad thing, but if you want, format C:, and then use Adobe Ghost to Clone your D drive onto C, then format D. Then you should have it the way you want (although all your pgorams and files from the old C drive will be gone, gotta back em up)

[jeannot18]

Hoorray!! After 3 tries I have finally managed to install Xp. I am in the process to reinstall all the application I need. I don't know what happen last night but the install process stopped when there was about 13 mins left and nothing was happening. I retried this morning and again it failed, and the third try I disconnected my modem (Broadband), printer and IBM Palm and it worked!!!

Thanks everybody for the help,

JC

[Marke522]

They always say the third times a charm.
So glad you're up and running.

Feel free to start another thread if you have an unrelated problem, or keep posting here if it's all for the same topic.

I don't start many threads of my own, I just read everyone elses.
Most of the time when I have a problem, I Search the forum for a few minutes and can usually find someone that has gone through it before, and they usually post againt to let others know what they did.

I have had many fixes answered that I never had to ask.

[jeannot18]

By the way, should i change the BIOS back to reading from the floppy disk or leave with the CDRom, it is working ok right now.

Also for some reason Xp does not recognise my scanner. I have run the setup disk provided with the scanner but i get an error message about the scanner not being connected directly to the PC through an USB connection (?), right now it is setup in parallel with the printer.
JC

[Marke522]

Yes, change the boot sequence back to floppy, C, cd-rom now that everything is working correctly.

I have the same problem with my scanner. The printer is plugged into the back of the scanner, and the scanner into the computer. My printer works just fine, but the computer cannot find the scanner. I know the cable works, because it can find the printer. I got it to work 6 months ago before I reinstalled Windows, but I forgot what I did.

What brand and model is your scanner? Try to boot the computer with the scanner on, and maybe Windows will find and install the new hardware automatically. Can you connect it using a USB instead of the parrallel? USB is much faster and dependeable.

[jeannot18]

Same setup with my printer and the scanner. My scanner is a cheap OpticPro 4830P. I may try the USB route if not.
Thanks
JC

[Redfallon]

A lot of "older" scanners don't work correctly in XP, especially if they're parallel port. Older HP PSC's I know for a fact have trouble working. You can, occassionaly get a scan using XP's built in "scan" function, but it's iffy at best.

[jeannot18]

You may be right, I can't even remember when I bought this scanner. Time to get a new one maybe.
JC

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by jeannot18 Hoorray!! After 3 tries I have finally managed to install Xp. I am in the process to reinstall all the application I need. I don't know what happen last night but the install process stopped when there was about 13 mins left and nothing was happening. I retried this morning and again it failed, and the third try I disconnected my modem (Broadband), printer and IBM Palm and it worked!!! Thanks everybody for the help, JC

Glad you got it! You just learned the lesson many of us have had to learn the hard way - disconnect ALL usb devices including front panel wiring before installing XP.