Cant recognize windows?

[whr2206]

ok.. today I repartitioned my 80gb hard drive to fat32 with partition magic 8.0.... When I restarted my computer after it was acting up... It took me into bios automatically then after I exited... it just said there like nothing was installed... I inserted the windows xp cd and when I hit repair it found a windows partition on the 80 gb but not the 30 (where windows was originally put) Here are the specs if this helps

Asus a7vnx-x (i think)
AMD barton 2500xp
512mb pc 2700 ddr crucial ram
30 gb 7200 rpm ibm drive (where windows was)
80 gb 7200 rpm 8mb cahce wd drive.. (one that was half partitioned for linux but I decided I didnt like it so I took the partition off)
geforce 4200ti leadtek
32x12x40 lite on cd burner
floppy
hercules gaming theater and so on...
On windows xp home

So is there anything I could do when I hit "repair" to to boot into the windows partition I have? Or do i have to delete that partition and reinstall windows...

I dont believe I had a virus or anything.. I just shut the computer down.. then booted back up and... It acts like it doesnt see windows or something...

If you need any more details I can give them... Thanks a lot!

[whr2206]

**update**

I forgot to add something...

I had a dual boot of Windows XP home and Linux... and I erased the linux partition and converted it into fat32... do you think that the dual boot got erased and now windows cant boot?

[andyms18a]

using this as a guide http://support.microsoft.com/default...&Product=winxp i wood first try fixboot and fixmbr

[whr2206]

I just tried fixboot and fixmbr... Then it restarted it... and it just went the screen where it shows you devices on your compute (right after bios) then jumped to a black screen with a white blinking dash... and thats it.... So where do I take it from here? Am I doing anything wrong?

[andyms18a]

ok the next step is to try this
Use the Windows XP CD-ROM to start your computer. On the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to set up Windows XP.
Press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
Use the ARROW keys to select the Windows XP installation that you want to repair, and then press R.

Windows XP Setup repairs the installation files, Windows XP automatically restarts, and then the Setup program finishes the repair of your Windows XP installation.
Follow the remaining steps to set up Windows.

Note You must have your 25-character Product Key to complete these steps.

[whr2206]

ok ill try that...

Ive got one problem though... Ive got 2 versions of Windows XP

One is the "Upgrade" Version (have the cd and product key)
The other is just Windows XP Home ... (i have the product key but cant find the cd anywhere)

WIll it matter if I use the upgrade version cd to repair it and type in my regulat windows XP home product key?

thanks

[whr2206]

ok, no worries.. I found the regular Windows XP home cd.. Ive got the prodcut key for it as well...

I really dont care at this point what I lose.. I want to do a clean installation.. Nothing TOO important was on the computer anyways... some games.. owell...

Now.. of course this brings another problem..

SO i delete all of the patitions off the 80gb drive and 30gb drive...re partition.. I format them to NFTS... then It starts copying files to the hard drive... and when tis done it wants to restart the computer.. Im thinking.. alright.. So i let it happen... then it restarts and the computer automatically goes right into bios for no aparent reason..(I exit discarding changes..) Then It starts up the windows installation again ... and does the SAME thing and takes me to the screen to repartition then reformat the hard drives.. but i JUST did this.. What am I doing wrong? THis is a vicious cycle...WHen I was installing windows around december I ran into this same problem and never really got it resolved...

**edit** oh yeah.. when I go into the repair console... when I scan for windows installations it finds them on

[1] c:\windows
[2] d:\windows

Could this create a problem if the computer finds too installations on 2 hard drives?

[trulad]

I had that happen once and the only way I could do it was I used a Win98 floppy to FDISK the drive then I set the first boot to CDROM and booted with the XP cd. XP formatted and partitioned and all was well. Hint: just hit enter one time when it asks to boot from CD otherwise the second time it starts over.Round & round we go.
trulad

[whr2206]

Yeah.. I just deleted both partitions .. redid everything... It was installing windows.. then it needed to restart the computer... and its doin the same thing trying to start a new windows installation over and over... blaaaaaah **lost**

[trulad]

Try unplugging the 30gig drive untill you get XP installed then you can go into Control Panel, Disk Management and format & partition the 30 gig.(after you plug it back in,of course).
trulad

[bigandy]

I've seen people recommend that after you complete the initial setup from the CD, to change the boot order to the HD first, and the install will finish that way. I don't know since I've never done it this way.

What I did however, is just leave the boot order the same, and when the PC rebooted, I got a message saying "Hit any key to boot from CD". Well, the first time through, I did, and I experienced the same thing you are now. After that time, I simply left the PC alone, and when I saw that message, I did nothing, and the setup continued as it should, and finished the install.

HTH.

[andyms18a]

when the computer asks you to restart remove the cd from the drive first as windows copys its self to the hard drive on the first bit of setup then reboots and instales from the hard drive