PC wants windows CD

J

jdjoubert

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I was in a hurry and unplugged the screen fron the graphics card without shutting down.

Plugged it in again 30min later (again while machine stil on).

Got plenty colourfull lines accross the screen so I turned the PC off and then on again.

Now it tells me to press 'r' after I have place the Windows Xp cd in the D drive.

I dont have a Windows XP cd as I bought the PC with all the software already on.

Can one download windows somewhere?
 
jdjoubert said:
I was in a hurry and unplugged the screen fron the graphics card without shutting down.

Plugged it in again 30min later (again while machine stil on).

Got plenty colourfull lines accross the screen so I turned the PC off and then on again.

Now it tells me to press 'r' after I have place the Windows Xp cd in the D drive.

I dont have a Windows XP cd as I bought the PC with all the software already on.

Can one download windows somewhere?
Click to expand...

Legally? No. You should've been given the Restore disc or original OEM Windows.
 
I have another PC working fine. Can I not make a Recovery CD with this PC, then place it in the CD drive of the broken one?
 
jdjoubert said:
I have another PC working fine. Can I not make a Recovery CD with this PC, then place it in the CD drive of the broken one?
Click to expand...
If you have the recovery CDs from the broken PC, they could have most of the Windows files on them somewhere.

I suppose you could copy the entire I386 directory onto a CD. It usually needs something from there.
 
jdjoubert said:
I was in a hurry and unplugged the screen fron the graphics card without shutting down.

Plugged it in again 30min later (again while machine stil on).

Got plenty colourfull lines accross the screen so I turned the PC off and then on again.

Now it tells me to press 'r' after I have place the Windows Xp cd in the D drive.

I dont have a Windows XP cd as I bought the PC with all the software already on.

Can one download windows somewhere?
Click to expand...

ok, first you say you put a xp cd in the cd rom and now you say you don't have a xp cd:confused:
why in the first place did you put a xp cd in the drive? off course it will ask you to press R for recovery console if you booted off the cd.
take the cd out and cycle the power on the pc
what happens then?
 
Sorry. My bad.

The line should read "Now it tells me to press 'r' after I have placed a (not the) Windows Xp cd in the D drive.

In other words, I dont have any Windows CD.
 
I am now busy copying all the files from the 'I386' folder of the not broken PC onto a disk.................

will put it into the broken PC and see what it does.
 
I also forgot to add another thing.

It says the following on the PC screen:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt

\Windows\System32\Config\System


:o
 
Nope, the I386 thing did not do the trick.


Will go to the PC shop on Monday and c if they can reinstall or repair Windows. :(
 
jdjoubert said:
Nope, the I386 thing did not do the trick.


Will go to the PC shop on Monday and c if they can reinstall or repair Windows. :(
Click to expand...
d:/windows/System32 is a big directory of just under a gigabyte, so maybe use a DVD-RW to load that.

Does it not tell you the exact file that's missing?

Bear in mind that it may be one of several missing files and you could be going back and forth between PC's.
 
What has probably happened is that the boot ini file has become corrupt. Google that. You can fix this easily afaik without a windows cd.
 
jdjoubert said:
It says the following on the PC screen:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt

\Windows\System32\Config\System


:o
Click to expand...

Registry is poked. "Last known good" might work, but if it doesn't unless you know exactly what you're doing and how to recover a copy of the registry from System Restore, a fresh XP install (without format!) is your best option.
 
Claymore said:
Registry is poked. "Last known good" might work, but if it doesn't unless you know exactly what you're doing and how to recover a copy of the registry from System Restore, a fresh XP install (without format!) is your best option.
Click to expand...

Yep, Claymore has it nailed.

What uncle Libs said about a dead hdd is true as well.

Had a similar problem recently, formatted, reinstalled, sent the pc back to where it should be, wham bam a few clicks later it started with the same problem. Turned out to be a faulty hard drive.

You should have an XP label next to your case with your Product code on it. Best bet would be is to insert your hard drive into another computer, copy the data over and format and clean install XP.

I'd suggest updating all drivers and software and restarting a few times, if the problem occurs again, then I'm sure you can start shopping for a new hard drive.

(For those with some more advanced skills, or those that want to learn something new, you can also use the registry restore tools on www.ubcd4win.com to get a system to a working state after this problem).
 
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