My pc won't work

[hooni22]

When i turn on my computer, i have a live screen and everything seems to work fine. The bios works fine, i have a beep, but when it's about to load the microsoft xp screen mode, it stops and says there is a problem with my pc. it then gives me the option of booting the computer from several choices. safemode, safemode with networking, safemode with command prompt, last known good configuration, or start windows normally. when i click on either of those choices ( i have tried all of them) it appears to work but then a blue error screen appears but passes by too quickly for me to see what it says and just repeats the process over again. Any Help?? i would really appreciate it. i don't know much about computers so it would be helpful if you guys fill me. Thanks !

[Starman*]

To kick things off, was the pc running OK before? Did this suddenly happen or did the pc get worse over time? Did you do anything prior to it happening?

What type of PC - give some details of the hardware, processor, ram. What operating system?

Starman*

[hooni22]

[QUOTE=Starman*]To kick things off, was the pc running OK before? Did this suddenly happen or did the pc get worse over time? Did you do anything prior to it happening?

well even though it's pretty old the system worked perfectly fine before. i was trying to install norton antivirus 06 but i had to unstill previous versions. so i went to web and found a program that deleted/uninstall the previous norton programs. after that it asked me to reboot the computer and when i did, this is what happened.

What type of PC - give some details of the hardware, processor, ram. What operating system?

Amibios
AMD k7 athlon 850MHz
256sdram dimm
518sdram dimm
western digital 80gig hd 7200 RPM 8mb cache
20.8 Samsung hd
Windows XP Pro

i think there might be something wrong with the registry. during the uninstallation process it deleted some registry files.
hope this helps

[Starman*]

Have you tried booting from the XP cd? You may have to go into the BIOS so it boots from the cd before the hdd. You may also have to do a repair install of XP if you cannot resolve the conflict.

Deleted registry entries may mean nothing or something. If the prog deleted the correct entries then it is irrelevant.

Starman*

[hooni22]

i'm trying to format the xp cd again. what do i do for partition?

[Starman*]

I don't know what you mean by formatting the cd, please explain further.

If you misunderstood what I said about booting from the xp cd, you put the cd in before you start the pc. On startup the pc will go to the cd and start Windows from that rather than from files on the hard drive (which are preventing startup). When you start the pc, observe the cd drive light to see if the pc is trying to access the cd.

If the pc does not start from the cd and you do not understand how to change the BIOS, post message.

Starman*

[Sylvander]

1. How to make a free “Smart Boot Manager” floppy
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41498
This makes it easier to boot a chosen drive [particularly the one holding a bootable CD].

XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option. (http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897)

2. How to make a free EBCD bootable CD
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41485
This has a number of useful utilities included including "Image" [for DOS, by Terabyte] & "File Manager".
Before you try the total rebuild, you could try using "Boot NT/2000/XP" [makes a boot floppy that by-passes the boot files on the HDD to get you into Windows].

[hooni22]

what i meant to say was that i booted from the xp cd and i'm trying to format my hard drives and reinstall windows xp. i'm at the process where i have to create a new partition but it won't let me. it says i have a unpartitioned space of 690490 mb, but i don't know how that is possible. my hd is only 20 gig. i don't know what to do.

[Starman*]

I was expecting you to try the boot and then ask "now what". You don't need to reformat the drives and should not. I don't know how far you have got and whether you can turn back. but the second guide that Sylvander posted "XP's No-Reformat......" is very well described with pictures.

Starman*

[hooni22]

i've reached the point of no return. it's alright though. i backed up all my files so, i'm good. thank you for all your help. got me out of this messy situation. i appreciate it.

[Starman*]

Good that you had a backup. That's still a lot more work than repairing. You must have missed the repair option in one of the windows.

Starman*