REQUEST advice on Dell 8400 running XP Media Center Edition 2005...

have had a hell of a time with Dell Tech Support via emails trying
to get the right information from them. i've gotten bogus advice time
and time again from them asking the same exact question.

with Media Center Edition 2005 the XP operating system is on a
DVD... not a CD... its a big program and will not fit on a CD.

ok, this computer froze on the reboot after taking out Norton
Internet Security 2006. it froze in a DOS screen before the Dell logo
came up. all the screen said was there was a corrupted system file in
the system folder but it offered no name of the corrupted file, and
the screen said to hit the ' R ' key to attempt to fix the situation.

hitting the ' R ' key rebooted the computer and brought me back to
the same screen.

putting the DVD operating system disk in the DVD internal drive and
rebooting did nothing... just return me to the same DOS screen telling
me to hit ' R '... which does nothing.

all i was asking Dell Tech. Support was how do i get the system to
recognize the DVD drive so i could re-install Windows XP Media Center
Edition 2005 from this frozen state.

i got nothing but stupid responses such as to use Norton Restore.
hey Dell Tech Support... cant you read ??? i said i just uninstalled
Norton.

BIOS doesn't show that the DVD is even in the computer. this
computer does not have a floopy drive either internal or external.
how in the world do i re-install this version of Windows XP ???

i'd appreciate an answer that really works. thank you.

 

I almost always resolve my computer problems, by trying different
approaches.

 

First, I would change the boot order to put CD at the top and then
insert your DVD. If it's a combo drive it might say CD even if DVDs
could be used.

I would try to run a System Restore. Maybe you can boot into Safe
Mode and run it from there.

The screen where booting into Safe Mode appears might even have an
option to use System Restore.

Someone else can say how to get to that screen. I think you hit F8 or
F12 at bootup.

If you want to do a complete system restore without regard to losing
data and all your program installs and settings, you may be able to do
that with Shift + F11 when you get to the bootup screen with the blue
banner at the top.

 

<--- This wasn't intended to be sent. It was the start of the other
post I made, and was going to be an explanation about how I "hack my
way into resolving computer problems"

 

it sounds like your installation of windows has suffered registry damage and
so is unable to boot.

it also sounds like your system is configured to boot first from the hard
disk first and so by-passes the bootable windows mce dvd that you desire to
boot from.

you can probably recover your windows installation by doing a repair install
once you boot from your windows mce dvd. but you have to be very careful
about what you select when prompted durring the installation or you will
simply overwrite all of you existing windows installation as well as loose
all that data that is on your hard disk. the link below gives excellent
directions on how to do a repair install of windows be sure to read and
understand the direction before proceeding or you will loose everything that
is currently on your hard disk. the only remaining question is how to make
your system boot from the windows mce dvd. the simple answer is to press
f10 durring the post on self test to make a boot menu appear. when you see
that boot menu you want to select the choice that includes booting from the
cd/dvd.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm