I have a computer with XP Home that I started to upgrade to XP Pro. During the install something happened to the cd drive and it stopped reading the disk. Now when the computer restarts I get a screen asking which os I want to use XP Home or XP Pro Setup. At this point I just want to remove the XP Pro Setup since my cd drive no longer works. How can I do that?
You should be able to do a SYSTEM RESTORE to a point before the XP Pro installation.
Start the machine and start tapping the F8 key until the boot menu is displayed. Use the arrow keys to highlight SAFE MODE and press enter. If you are given a menu to choose which Windows to boot into, choose the Home edition. Windows will load with the minimum drivers. Your screen display will be 640 X 480 and the icons will be large. You will eventually see a window advising you that you are in safe mode, click OK or NO. Click NO. That should open The System Restore function. Choose to restore the system to an earlier date. A calendar with be displayed. The BOLD dates are the ones that you can restore to. Choose a date that was before the date you tried to install XP Pro. Follow the prompts and the restore process will run and reboot your computer. Following the reboot, the installation will complete and Windows will open.
If you have installed a service packs or updates after the restore date you will need to install them again.
Good Luck! and please let me know how this works out for you.
What kind of computer is it? Desktop or laptop? Can the CD-ROM be easily replaced?
What is the model? I'll try to see if the drives are swapable.
Can you boot into Safe Mode?
Boot it into Safe Mode. Right click on My Computer and then click on MANAGE. In the left column, click on Device manager. In the right window you should see all of the installed devices. Look near the top to see if the CD-ROM is shown. If it is, right click on it and choose uninstall. If you are prompted that the device will be uninstalled click yes. The drive should then be uninstalled.
At the top of the window is My Computer. Right click on it and then click on "scan for hardware changes". The drive will hopefully be reinstalled. After the installation completes, close everything so you are back to the desktop. Put a CD in the drive and test to see if you can explore the disc.
Let me know what happens.
Thsi would be a long shot, but worth a try. Do you have access to a different computer and , if so, do you have a 1 GB or larger USB thumb drive? If you can use these two, copy the entire XP installation CD to a folder on the thumb drive. There are probably some hidden files on the CD, so you will need to make them visible before you copy the files. Then see if you can access the USB folder from your computer. Run setup and press enter to install XP. At the second menu, press 'r' to repair an installation of XP. Choose your Home installation and follow the prompts. With a little luck, it should work.
Another option would be to check used computer stores for an external CD-ROM drive. Some of them connect to the parrallel port. If you can find one, this would be a good option, as you would have a drive in the future. It has been a while since I've seen these, but it's an option, if you can find one.
Here's an option that may save you some effort. I checked on ebay and found an external drive that connect trough the pcmcia slot. There are also so usb 2.0 drives for less, but I don't know if they would work, as I think your laptop is too old and has usb 1 or 1.1. Anyway here's the link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/24X-EXTERNAL-LAPTOP-...|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50
As always, good luck!
You would need to check the BIOS to set the boot order. You should be able to tell by the available options. Some devices, like USB, will only show if they are connected.
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The system restore won't allow me to go back far enough to the date of install. Now what?
It's an HP laptop, so I think it might be expensive to replace. I never priced it, but it might not be worth fixing. Is there anything else I can do, or am I just stuck with the setup being partially completed? I'm guessing there are files out there somewhere that are telling the pc to try and complete the setup. Is it possible to just delete those files and fix the problem? I'm sure it's not that simple, but any other help would be appreciated.
It's a Pavillion XH555 prod# F3929HR sn#TW14029307. It's probably about 7-8 years old, or more.
Yes I can, as I tried that per earlier instructions.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the cd/dvd drive but nothing changed in the way it operates. I pretty sure there is a problem with the physical drive and not the driver or installation. I can here the drive spin slow and the read/write head move and click, but the drive never spins fast as in normal operation.
So aside from having a new drive installed is there anyway to get rid of the partial XP install, or for that matter completely reinstall the system from scratch, without having access to the cd drive?
Will the pc boot from an external cd drives, or does Windows have to load drivers before they will work. I'd really like to reformat the HD and start a new install from scratch, but if the pc won't boot from an external device then I can't do that.
I really appreciate all of your help, Spoem. Keep up the great advice!
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