Help, trying to help neighbor who wiped out her xp and cant get back on!

[wentreefgirl]

She apparently crashed so she went to reformat the computer only to find that when she goes to redownload the xp off the recovery disc it doesnt boot up. It just goes to command prompt. What do I do to get it to redownload the disc. She has a dell dimension?????THe tiniest little computer case ive ever seen. No floppy drive. Just cd-rom. Please help.

[emr]

She apparently crashed so she went to reformat the computer only to find that when she goes to redownload the xp off the recovery disc it doesnt boot up. It just goes to command prompt. What do I do to get it to redownload the disc. She has a dell dimension?????THe tiniest little computer case ive ever seen. No floppy drive. Just cd-rom. Please help.

Hi and welcome to WinDrivers.

Is she booting the pc with the CD in the drive? If so then you should see a prompt after the initial post screen that says "Press any key to boot from CD" (or similar).

Now has she already reformatted the drive? If not then she may be able to perform a repair install of her previous installation rather than having to do a fresh install.

That all depends on what the original problem was though. Perhaps you can provide some more information on what the issue was?

emr

[wentreefgirl]

Yes, ive started it up with the disc in the drive. It doesnt do much. I believe she already reformatted but cant be positive due to I wasnt there. I know that she was trying to open her computer and it would get as far as the personal setting screen and when she double clicked on her name it would go no further. Im no pro when it comes to computers but have learned some tricks along the way but this one is a stumper. I have a fix it utilities 5 that has a rescue boot on it that ive tried. It just takes me to command prompt. Ive tried her xp rescue disc and it does nothing. And just to try I tried my rescue disc. Nothing. But it does bring up the fix it utilites disc which tells me it does work.

[emr]

Yes, ive started it up with the disc in the drive. It doesnt do much. I believe she already reformatted but cant be positive due to I wasnt there. I know that she was trying to open her computer and it would get as far as the personal setting screen and when she double clicked on her name it would go no further. Im no pro when it comes to computers but have learned some tricks along the way but this one is a stumper. I have a fix it utilities 5 that has a rescue boot on it that ive tried. It just takes me to command prompt. Ive tried her xp rescue disc and it does nothing. And just to try I tried my rescue disc. Nothing. But it does bring up the fix it utilites disc which tells me it does work.

Ok, it probably isn't set to boot from CD in the bios. Can you give us the model number of the Dell Dimension she has?

I believe pressing the F10 key at boot may bring up a menu where you can choose to boot from CD but can't remember 100 %. Try that anyway to see.

emr

[GreenGrime]

I get the feeling you are referring to the Wnidows Emergency Boot Diskette and not the Windows Installation CD also.

Is this the case?

Dells are sold with a recovery CD which restores the system to the factory standards when you boot with it.

[emr]

I get the feeling you are referring to the Wnidows Emergency Boot Diskette and not the Windows Installation CD also.

Is this the case?

Dells are sold with a recovery CD which restores the system to the factory standards when you boot with it.

Doubt it is that as she has no diskette drive as per the first post.

[GreenGrime]

Doubt it is that as she has no diskette drive as per the first post.

Oops.

[digi]

Place the dell disc in the drive turn off.

upon turning on f8 untill it says...push any buitton to start form CD. Sometimes you have to do it a couple of times.

at that point do a repair of XP and follow the directions. It will seem as though you are installing anew copy but it actualy repairs.