Old lady lost windows xp

[Dave Stevens]

On Thursday 12 November 2009 03:04:55 pm Mark Traceur wrote:
> > The hard drive has windows xp on it but it won't start and we can't redu
> > it on account of the lost cd with the numbers.
> > I tried to install a legal windowsf 98 ( she is familiar with) and then
> > as an intrduction  e.g. puppy linux, but the computer hangs up and keeps
> > looking for windows xp.  with it's ID numbers.. John H
>
> From what I can gather:
>
> 1. The HD has XP installed, but it is not starting.
> 2. The lady has lost her CD.
> 3. You installed 98 from a CD she DOES have,
> 4. and promptly found that the computer still tries to boot to XP.
> 5. Linux doesn't work either.
>
> Make sure you've installed to the correct drive--if you haven't, it'll
> still have ntldr in the first drive and break the install.
>
> If that doesn't work, find ANY XP install CD and (from the recovery
> console) run 'fixmbr'.
>
> Try accessing the files using an Ubuntu live CD, if the drive doesn't
> mount...it's probably dead. Especially if it once had '98 on it, it's
> probably a decade old and needs replacing.
>
> Good luck!
>
> --MarkTraceur

why is a non-working Windows XP installation a problem for the Ubuntu list?

Dave

>
> --
>
> Microsoft does half the work that Open Source developers do, and they
> get all the money. Where's the justice there?
>
> OpenSUSE 11.2, just realeased... :)  -
> http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/a3onm/opensuse_112_just_realeased/



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