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[Joe]

my brother tried re-installing windows 2000 but it wasnt working. it kept telling him to insert cd and press enter...he keeps pressing enter and nothing happens. so he wants to quit out and he took out the windows disc and restarted and it keeps bringing him back to the installation window (asking him to hit enter). its one big circle and he cant get back to his desktop. he even turned it off completely and when he turned it back on it brought him back to the same window.

how do you clear this thing completely?

 

[gohepcat]

Hehe. If he has arrived at a part where the boot processes is bringing him to that screen there is very little he can do. I assume there is something telling the OS to boot into the set up.

He will need to boot from the CD and choose "Repair" and then try to repair the master boot record.

 

[Joe]

he currently has windows 2000. hes very bad with computers.

it brings him to a screen where its telling him to hit enter to go to setup but nothing happens. the cd is in, he keeps hitting enter...nothing is happening. with the cd in the drive and out of the drive he gets the same window no matter what.

 

[gohepcat]

he currently has windows 2000. hes very bad with computers.

Whoops I fixed my first post with the answer.
Just have him boot from the windows 2000 install disk. (If he knows how) then chose repair. IT will bring him to a dos like screen. type help and it might list the commands I can't remmeber exactly. but what he wants to do is fix the MBR.

 

[Joe]

recovery console? i told him to go there and it only lets him type in 1 letter. so help didnt work. it asked for an install number he put in 1 and it asked for a password but what is it?

 

[gohepcat]

he currently has windows 2000. hes very bad with computers.

it brings him to a screen where its telling him to hit enter to go to setup but nothing happens. the cd is in, he keeps hitting enter...nothing is happening. with the cd in the drive and out of the drive he gets the same window no matter what.

He might need to go into the Bios and set the CD rom as the first boot device. This sounds like it might be too daunting for him to do....but it might be his only hope of fixing it.

I assume when he first started this he was already in Windows 200. He put the install disk in and chose "Install windows 2000" or something. When he did that it wrote a little piece of code in the MBR telling the machine to boot into set up next time it starts up. It's odd that it's failing at that point. It might take a while for something to happen. Tell him to give it another try and wait a few minutes after he hits enter.

 

[Joe]

i got him to get the cd to boot first. he put the cd in and restarted and it brings him to same exact screen asking him to insert disc and hit enter. disc is already in, he hits enter...nothing.

its literally a circle no matter what you do.

hes at a command prompt! what to do now?

 

[gohepcat]

recovery console? i told him to go there and it only lets him type in 1 letter. so help didnt work. it asked for an install number he put in 1 and it asked for a password but what is it?

WTF? I have no idea what that is. and yes I was talking about recovery console.

Install number? Did he have choices and he chose number 1, or did he just type the number one.

Was this ever a business machine? Is it a home machine he bought at Best Buy or something else. Perhaps it's some corporate lockout thing.
That's weird man.

 

[gohepcat]

hes at a command prompt! what to do now?

Type help or ?
haha. If that brings up something with MBR choose that.

 

[Joe]

it was always a home machine, its a dell. he's re-installed a few times before. he's at a command prompt right now but im not sure what to do. i was gonna tell him to format but then he might really be screwed if it wont install.

 

[Joe]

used the fixmbr command, and it said it was successful. took the cd out, restarted...same fucking screen.

 

[gohepcat]

used the fixmbr command, and it said it was successful. took the cd out, restarted...same fucking screen.

Get the hell outta here!

What else is there?
hmm. Keep looking for something in the boot area. I'd keep using the recovery console. It's the only thing you have.

 

[Joe]

yeah well he got pissed and gave up :lol

thanks for your help (for now), appreciate it a lot. i'll probably end up bumping this thread tomorrow afternoon. thanks again.

 

[Joe]

if windows copies files for installation what directory does it go to?

i can just get to a command prompt and delete that directory and hopefully that will let him get to the desktop again.

 

[gohepcat]

if windows copies files for installation what directory does it go to?

i can just get to a command prompt and delete that directory and hopefully that will let him get to the desktop again.

I don't think it copies them to a directory. I'ts either a configuration file that has changed, or something else. I assumed it was the MBR, but it must not be that.
Hmmmm. It might be the boot.ini file. If you remove that it will default c:windows I think.

As long as the computer is set up with the operating system on the C drive it should work.

 

[Tekky]

Boot the Windows CD, then do a "repair install". This is not the same as the "repair" option.
I believe you first say that you want to install, select the partition, and it finds your old installation, then you choose "repair" at that point.

 

[Joe]

I believe you first say that you want to install, select the partition, and it finds your old installation, then you choose "repair" at that point.

you cant even select to install. it says to insert disc and press enter to instal. he inserts the disc and hits enter and nothing at all happens.

 

[Ecrofirt]

silly question, but is there any point before this where he has to ue a keyboard?

I've heard of problems with some keyboards not working (stuff like Compaq PCs and USB keyboards) when it asks you to use them.

Try using a cheapo non-usb keyboard.

 

[Tekky]

Perhaps you should be more clear with what you're doing exactly.

Booting a CD never asks you to "insert disk" since the disk is already there.
What are you booting with?

Do you know about going into the BIOS and changing the boot order?

 

[Joe]

he was in windows, he put in the cd to re-install windows and it said it was copying files and then it restarted. it got to that blue installation screen and its asks if you want to install or repair. he selects install and then it tells him to enter the disc and press enter. the disc was already in so he hit enter. tried a bunch of different stuff but theres just no possible way to get past that screen. changed the boot order to boot hard disk first without the windows disc in the cd drive and it gets to the same screen. theres no way to avoid that screen and theres no way to get past it unless you go to repair. and if he goes to repair he can type which is why i asked if there is a specific directory microsoft put the copied installation files into so he could delete it and get back to his dekstop.

 

[Tekky]

Okay, now we're getting somewhere.

What computer do you have, and what CD drive do you have?
More specifically, do you know if the CD drive is hooked up to a regular IDE port, or to something else? Seems like you have an oddball configuration, perhaps. Could the drive be hooked up to a "RAID" IDE port?

 

[Joe]

it's a dell and im not sure what its hooked up to. nothings ever been changed since he has gotten it from dell.

 

[Tekky]

What's the exact Dell model number?
Or, if you go into the BIOS, does it list the CD drive among the IDE devices?
Is there more than one CD drive?

 

[Joe]

the cd drive is ide, there is only one cd drive.

 

[Tekky]

Wait, back up a second. After it copies files and reboots, you're not supposed to hit a key to boot from the CD.

Back up another second. What disk are you booting? Is it a Microsoft Windows disk, or is it a Dell "reinstall" disk? I don't have any idea how the latter will behave.

 

[Joe]

its a windows disc and it is asking him to insert the disc and hit enter to proceed installation. he puts in the disc, hits enter...nothing happens. the disc worked fine, i mean it copied the files when he put it in while in windows.

 

[Tekky]

Seems like Windows doesn't have the necessary drivers to read from your IDE system.

Probably, it's a very new Dell. Didn't it come with XP?

You know that part where you boot and it gives you a few seconds to choose to load extra drivers from a floppy? Well, you probably need to make use of that. Of course, you first need to find the appropriate drivers and put them on a floppy. And hopefully, the computer you're working with has a floppy.

I can't help you any further unless I know exactly what computer you have.