Win XP Possessed by evil demon. Please Advise here...

[Prambonga]

I am not a genius. However nor am I an imbecile, yet WinXP has this strange effect upon me that makes me THINK I am an imbecile....
Ok I am going to post my problem here in hopes that someone can help me out, if so, then please please please offer up any advice you may have.

My friend has a Toshiba laptop that is running WinXP home. It seems that everytime I attempt to load any software that uses Installshield there is a problem. Namely, Installshield locks up then stops the install due to "an invalid page script error". I have tried everything to fix it to no avail. At this point my friend would like to just reformat and install Win98SE. This sounds like a great idea to me as I have no other ideas how to fix the installshield problem and all he really wants is just to play Sims LOL
That said, I need help doing the reformat. Perhaps I am an imbecile after all as I dont know how to go about all of this in WinXP...
Help...PLease???!!?? With sugar on top even???

[doctorgonzo]

Edit: Just use the Windows 98 startup disk, and run fdisk.

[bailey]

Originally posted by doctorgonzo Edit: Just use the Windows 98 startup disk, and run fdisk.

I don't think that will work very well if it is a ntfs

[doctorgonzo]

If he is going to reformat and start from scratch, it shouldn't matter.

[Statica]

Originally posted by bailey I don't think that will work very well if it is a ntfs

fdisk has nothing to do with the filesystem and NTFS is just a type of filesystem.

Run fdisk and go to the delete partitions section. You will probably have to delete nonDOS partitions to get it to go.

However, I would strongly suggest that you try it with a clean copy of XP. It doesnt sound like typical XP behavior, which is by far stabler than anything that MS put out there before. Seems an awful waste of a perfectly good OS if you dump it for one game. If you are reinstalling XP, make sure you use the XP cd to boot and then delete all partitions and recreate them all.. that way you are ensured of a clean HD.

[Prambonga]

Run fdisk and go to the delete partitions section. You will probably have to delete nonDOS partitions to get it to go. However, I would strongly suggest that you try it with a clean copy of XP. It doesnt sound like typical XP behavior, which is by far stabler than anything that MS put out there before. Seems an awful waste of a perfectly good OS if you dump it for one game. If you are reinstalling XP, make sure you use the XP cd to boot and then delete all partitions and recreate them all.. that way you are ensured of a clean HD. [/B]

Ok. I dont have the original XP disk, only the recovery discs included by Toshiba, and they wont load due to the installshield problem. I think keeping WinXP is a great idea, but if I cant get past the installshield problem then I dont think I have any other option, do I?

[Statica]

From experience I've seen that Toshiba usually gives the OS CD with the computer - including the restore CD.
The restore CD will erase everything u have on the comp and restore it to a condition as if it were purchased.
Check the usermanual or call toshiba tech. they will outline how to run the restore cd.

[doctorgonzo]

Do you have a recovery disk from Toshiba that resets the computer its factory settings? The recovery disks you are talking about don't sound like they are the right ones.

[andyms18a]

first thing you may want to do is run check disk then run system restore pick a date as far back as you can

[Prambonga]

The recovery discs I have a a set of 3 that say "Toshiba recovery and repair"
I am assuming these are the correct discs. The Toshiba manual also states taht there is no WinXP disc included because the information is "already loaded onto the hard drive".
For the sake of arguement lets say these are the correct recovery discs.
How do I go about utilizing them if installshield was used to compress the info and I am having Installshield issues?
Or am I missing something????

[andyms18a]

boot from the first recovery disk instead of the hard drive you may need to set your bios to boot first from the cdrom

[Prambonga]

I know how to access BIOS but I dont know how to set it to boot from the cdrom, if you could run through the info that would be great

[andyms18a]

go to the bios and look for advanced then look down the list for first boot device or boot order and set the first boot device to cdrom save and exit with the cd in the drive and the computer shod reboot from the cdrom