i have a gateway pc with xp on it. and now its running crappy, so i want to reinstall xp on it. i tried to install xp over the current one on the hard drive, but succeeded in making 2 XPs to choose from upon start up. the restore disk that came with it doesnt even work. it loads up and the recovery windows just does nothing but stay open. can someone help me reinstall windows without buying anything? thanx
Reinstalling XP on a Gateway
- Thread starter Fil
- Start date
When installing XP from CD there is an option to delete partitions. If you don't use the option to format the disk you will end up with what you have. 2 instances of the OS.
Start the install again and this time let Windows format the disk before install to remove the other 2 installs.
Start the install again and this time let Windows format the disk before install to remove the other 2 installs.
Are you booting from the XP cd to do the install?
There is an option to remove the partitions. When you get to the partition screen you highlight the partition and select delete. It will ask you to confirm and after you confirm it the partition will show one big unformatted partitions. Create the partition and after you do you should see 2 partitions. One 8 megs in size and the other the size of the rest of the disk.
Hit enter to install. The next step will instruct you to format the disk. Select quick format (ntfs). Once the format is done you''ll get a screen saying Windows Install will reboot your computer in 15 seconds. Hit enter to reboot right away. On reboot the OS will install.
There is an option to remove the partitions. When you get to the partition screen you highlight the partition and select delete. It will ask you to confirm and after you confirm it the partition will show one big unformatted partitions. Create the partition and after you do you should see 2 partitions. One 8 megs in size and the other the size of the rest of the disk.
Hit enter to install. The next step will instruct you to format the disk. Select quick format (ntfs). Once the format is done you''ll get a screen saying Windows Install will reboot your computer in 15 seconds. Hit enter to reboot right away. On reboot the OS will install.
like i said when i try to delete the partion it says "unable to delete the partion hit enter to continue" which takes t the screen that says create delete partition. and it wont let make a new partition. it says to hit C to make a new parion. i prolly hit C a million times and nothing happened. could it be a prob with my XP disk?
GavinO
Expert
Were there any sort of security settings on the existing XP partition? If all else fails, you should be able to use a Linux boot CD (usually called a Live CD) to boot the machine and enter a command prompt, and run the Linux version of FDisk from there. I have yet to encounter a partition that that utility won't get rid of (I've previously had problems like yours deleting HP-UX partitions, as the DOS utility requires you to enter the partition name using all capital letters, while HP-UX partitions are named in lower-case letters)
You could use MaxBlast available at Maxtors site or the format tool available at Western Digital to do a low level format of the disk before you install XP. That way XP would see the disk as being completely empty and you'd be able to create as many partitions as you need.
