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Computer gurus, can you help me? - Page 2

post #16 of 35
11/14/09 at 9:59am
Yeah pretty much. It's free and will give you something to play with until you decide what to do next. Ubuntu is a good start, plenty of support. Very much like Vista. . . .or is it the other way around?
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post #17 of 35
11/14/09 at 9:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeftyGorilla View Post
Yep, time to try Ubuntu. It's free aside from your time, but it will get your computer up and running everything you need.
Except for games
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post #18 of 35
11/14/09 at 10:06am
Well, then you have to suck it up and pay for Windows.
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post #19 of 35
11/14/09 at 11:22am
Thread Starter 
Okay, well I popped in that xp cd and decided to take a peek at the files in the folder. I dont know why my HP is saying that the NTLDR is missing because under C:\I386 folder on the cd I found both NTLDR and NTDETECT as well. How do I replace them now?
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post #20 of 35
11/14/09 at 11:31am
Not sure, but I think pressing F10 during boot up will boot the recovery partition.

NTLDR error means your MBR is probably corrupted. Check this page, you might be able to fix it:

Simple "ntldr is missing" fix with boot floppy, CD-R, or USB flash

At what stage does it happen, though? It seems like with the XP disc you should be able to reformat the partition and install the OS. But there is plenty still to work with before giving up.

With Ubuntu you could still run lots of games, either with wine or possibly even with a virtual OS installed since you have an XP disc. Not sure about sims, that might or might not work. But trying fixing the NTLDR problem first, you might be able to put XP on there.
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post #21 of 35
11/14/09 at 11:39am
Thread Starter 
Well what confuses me is when I look up how to replace it, it says put in the xp cd and hit any key to continue. Well this xp cd has the defective ntldr so it wont boot up. When I put in the disk it says ntldr is missing. So I cannot go pass that.
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post #22 of 35
11/14/09 at 11:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by oakleyguy89 View Post
Well what confuses me is when I look up how to replace it, it says put in the xp cd and hit any key to continue. Well this xp cd has the defective ntldr so it wont boot up. When I put in the disk it says ntldr is missing. So I cannot go pass that.
I think the ntldr it's referring to is the one that's supposed to be on your hard drive. I would assume the computer has USB (a floppy would be even easier if it has a drive) so just follow that web page or some other one about fixing the MBR.

BTW, do you know what filesystem is on the drive, FAT32 or NTFS? What was the original OS? XP, or something else?


>>> EDIT: Here's a really good NTLDR troubleshooting guide. I would systematically go through and follow the steps listed here:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findby...rmissingxp.htm
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post #23 of 35
11/14/09 at 12:26pm
Thread Starter 
I tried that one on that site with my usb stick and its a no go.
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post #24 of 35
11/14/09 at 12:37pm
Thread Starter 
I think it has to do with that xp cd, because it only does that error with that burnt xp cd or when I try it without a cd. I believe it is NTSF and the original OS is xp.
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post #25 of 35
11/14/09 at 12:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by oakleyguy89 View Post
I tried that one on that site with my usb stick and its a no go.
Did you see my edit with the other link? Go through those 12 steps (a 12-step program is often needed when dealing with windows ) and see if one of them fixes it.

I still don't understand why the install disc doesn't work, though. If you do manage to boot to the install CD, I would wipe (reformat) the entire drive, including the recovery partition (which is obviously not doing you much good), and do a completely fresh install.

If that doesn't work (and you're sure the hardware is okay - cables, hard drive, correct bios settings), I would install linux and then install XP "inside" linux on virtualbox. That should allow you to play most games (but again I can't promise the sims).
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post #26 of 35
11/14/09 at 12:46pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, the install disk is burnt xp. So I cant really try those steps on the link that you provided on that edit. Reason being is I dont have an original xp cd, only that copy and I get stuck right when I turn on the computer. I cannot get anywhere with that copy. So that link doesnt really apply lol. I think they are probably talking about when you have xp already installed and it starts doing that, so they have you get the original xp disc and use command prompt and do the copy command to copy from D: to your C: drive. Im seeing if I can fix this manually by ripping the CD directly to my thumb drive and plugging the thumb drive into my aspire one (Which has xp) and replace the ntldr, and the ntdetect files with the ones from my aspire one.

EDIT: I dont understand why computer manufacturers have to only create a partition in the HDD for backups. I think it is much more convenient to just include the installation disks as well, because if something corrupts in the recovery partition then you are fubar.
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post #27 of 35
11/14/09 at 12:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by oakleyguy89 View Post
Yeah, the install disk is burnt xp. So I cant really try those steps on the link that you provided on that edit. Reason being is I dont have an original xp cd, only that copy and I get stuck right when I turn on the computer. I cannot get anywhere with that copy. So that link doesnt really apply lol. I think they are probably talking about when you have xp already installed and it starts doing that, so they have you get the original xp disc and use command prompt and do the copy command to copy from D: to your C: drive. Im seeing if I can fix this manually by ripping the CD directly to my thumb drive and plugging the thumb drive into my aspire one (Which has xp) and replace the ntldr, and the ntdetect files with the ones from my aspire one.
Install CD is not an XP CD? I don't get it. OEM cd should work. Or do you mean it is an HP recovery CD?

Did you try F10 for the recovery partition? If you can't recover and you don't have an install CD, you will either have to 1) contact HP for any recovery methods they might have, 2) buy a copy of windows, 3) install linux and hope your games will work in wine.

I think that's pretty much all you can do legally, at least. *cough* torrent *cough*
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post #28 of 35
11/14/09 at 1:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by userlander View Post
I think that's pretty much all you can do legally, at least. *cough* torrent *cough*
Yup, that is what the cd I am using is. Like I said its a copy of xp.
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post #29 of 35
11/14/09 at 1:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by oakleyguy89 View Post
Yup, that is what the cd I am using is. Like I said its a copy of xp.
So it should boot and install then. If not, you got the wrong "copy." You might need one with SP2 "slipstreamed" into the install disc, for example, or else as the link I gave you detailed, update your BIOS to accommodate an XP install disc of original XP that doesn't have SP2.
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post #30 of 35
11/14/09 at 1:33pm
Thread Starter 
Ill give that a go.
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