XP Re-Installation

[the Crazed]

Hey Guys, was hoping someone could help with this...

Recently I got a trojan on my comp and used BC-Wipe to get rid of it and infected files, but I think I also took out some files that I needed because afterward my Internet Explorer wouldn't work as well as Notepad and my comp would get extremely slow playing Age of Mythology.  I have an AMD 2600+, 512mb ram, good video card, this just shouldn't happen!  So... just a few days ago decided to reinstall XP.

I chose the second option (of 2) on the XP CD - install without effecting files already on the PC.   

Install was going fine until it asked for the file "usbehci.sys".  I cancelled (didn't have it) and installation crashed and restarted.  The prompt came again for the file and I found it for ME and 98 (on the CD that came with my motherboard) and tried that one.  It indicated that it couldn't verify the windows logo thing (sorry, don't remember exactly) and I said I didn't care.  Anyways, didn't work, setup crashed and restarted.  I can't get my computer to start without going into setup.

So, I found the supposedly correct file online and put it on a floppy and tried to use that.  Again it said it couldn't verify the window logo thing and I went ahead anyway.  Same results.  Setup crashes and restarts, except now it doesn't even prompt me that it can't find that file, it restarts and goes until about the same point (34 minutes remaining) and crashes and restarts. 

So, I can't use my comp at all!  Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem and continue with the reinstallation?  If not, can anyone tell me how to just get back into windows so I can use my computer?  I need my Quake fix!

Thanks for your help!!!

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

My suggestion would be to use a boot disc to delete the Windows folder, then try to reinstall.  That's what I do when I re-install, delete all the system folders first.

I downloaded one of them WinPE Boot Disc from a p2p site, but a Knoppix disc should work as well.

Then stay away from them trojans.

[the Crazed]

Hmmm, thanks Solo!  Unfortunately this computer has no cd burner, so I can only use floppies and the Knoppix is too big to fit.  How would deleting the system files end the crashing of the install anyway?  Is there something else entirely I could do?

Worse comes to worse I'll just have to order the Knoppix CD and test that out..

Thanks for your help!!

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

How would deleting the system files end the crashing of the install anyway?

Not sure, computers can be wierd, it could be seeing stuff in your windows folder from an update and thinks it needs to reinstall that.  I do it to make sure there's no conflicts with stuff, I also delete any files in the root of my C drive.

CD and DVD burners are pretty cheap now days, and there really nice to have for makeing backups of really big files or lots of files at once.

[the Crazed]

Well yes... i agree... however my burner is on the computer i'm trying to fix 

I JUST downloaded a boot disc (that extracted to six floppies) and my computer still goes straight to trying to install windows, but without the installation disc in the cd-rom it goes to black.  I didn't see any lights from my A-drive to indicate it was being accessed...

<sigh>  Anything else someone might like to offer?

[the Crazed]

well.. I wasn't seeing any lights because I didn't have the BOOT from floppy thing enabled in my SETUP.  However... when I DID enable it nothing changed.  Still says "Restarting Windows Setup" and then goes black (or in the case that the XP installation CD is in the drive it goes to the 39 minute mark and counts down to the 34 minute mark and restarts and does it all over again).

ARGH!!!!

[console]

however my burner is on the computer i'm trying to fix 

Wait, does that mean you have a separate computer there?  One without a CD burner?  That would really increase your options.

  - move the burner temporarily to the other system ?  burn your boot CD, move the burner back

  - move your hard drive from the hosed system temporarily to the other system, so you can manually rename the WINNT (or equivalent) directory, then move the HD back and do a fresh install

Some other things you might try...

  - remove every possible peripheral from the system that's crashing during install... i.e. remove any devices besides keyboard/mouse that are hooked up to the USB ports; remove the sound card; even the network card; whatever...  just to see if that might stop it from crashing during the install

  - do you have a spare hard drive, or a separate hard drive partition with enough room to do a fresh system install?  If so, do a fresh install on that drive or partition just to see if you can get thru that without crashing.  If so, then you can at least boot up and be able to do some manual copying & renaming on your main system partition to see if you can get it into a state where it no longer crashes.


Well, just some thoughts...

Regards,

[the Crazed]

Hey Console,

I considered moving my main HD and/or burner but I'd like to exhaust other possibilites first, because the other computer is my roommate's (and all that damn work, i'm LAZY!).  There might not be another option though 

At this point I'm trying to troubleshoot it from the computer itself.  The main problem is when I start the computer, it enters setup.  With or without the installation CD in the drive, with or without a boot disc (at least the one I tried).  I will take your advice and remove peripherals and see if that helps.  At this point the setup isn't even getting to where it HAD been when I first wrote.  Now it goes to a black screen.  Before the problem seemed to be just the one file I needed to have, now I have no idea.

Any secret admin hotkeys I could use to get it to a dos prompt or a windows safe mode option?  Scratch getting the setup to work.  I DO have another HD I could try installing XP on to see what the deal is, which I could stick into the computer as master, but again that would take another comp. 

Hmmm... my HD is pretty full... would XP need more than 7 gigs to install correctly?

[ĄƦçɧąɳɠҾԼ]

Keep hitting F8 when you turn it on till a menu pops up.  It has safe mode and other options.

[the Crazed]

hehe... thanks Solo... i should have known THAT one.. 

ummm, it's weird... when I try to start it in safe mode... it also has a black screen with the words "Safe Mode" in the corners and something like "AMD 2600 Build" along the top.  I can't seem to do anything from it though   

Well... I'm biting the bullet and stealing my roommates comp.  Gonna stick my HD in it... and check it out... and maybe copy my autoconfig to his q2 folder (that I installed  ) and definitely play a game of Quake... then start trouble-shooting...

Thanks for your help, both of you!!!

[Laurelin]

Heh. Good luck with this Crazed, can't wait to play some games with you!

[themuffinman]

ok crazed, i think its get-your-hammer-out time - that ALWAYS works 

[tr3y]

Not sure if your still messing around with this crazed but there should also be settigns in your bios for the boot order. Make sure the floppy drive is ahead of disk 0 in the order and not after, sounds like your problem.

I would also recommend you get your .cfg file off the hd and do a full format on it then reinstall, if you had a trojan who knows what files are in your current windows folder and you may end up with problems again from it.

[Om3ga]

i use 2 partitions, and drive c always get infected, so i back up to drive d as always  . thats the only way i fight viruses/spyware/adware

[themuffinman]

i use 2 partitions, and drive c always get infected, so i back up to drive d as always