Our family computer was originally an old Dell PC.  It got destroyed due to lightning frying it.  So it was completely restored with a new mother board, processor, ram, tower, etc.  In fact, I doubt there's anything Dell in it anymore.  So now it's basically just a bunch of junk assembled together (Durin 1300MHz, 256MB RAM, some generic CD-ROM, some generic Hard drive, etc.).

Anyways, I installed Windows XP.  Then after about 4 months it broke down, and I suspect it was my brother's fault for getting a virus.  Windows XP, everytime it would load up it'd just restart before the login screen appeared, suggesting to me file dependencies were missing.  So I tried to repair the installation, but for reasons beyond me it wouldn't load my disc (I'm not too good at this part of computers; BIOS, etc.).  So my Mom sent it in and the guy said the BIOS was configured incorrectly to where it wouldn't read boot discs first before loading anything else, blah blah.  He also said an operating systems from Dell (My WinXP CD was created from Dell) installed on non-Dell computers (remember that this computer isn't really a Dell anymore) would eventually break down.  I assumed it was a bunch of garbage, and that's not really the issue now.

Problem:  When the computer was returned w/ the BIOS re-configured my Mom like she always is felt as if she needed to install the OS ASAP w/o me doing it.  So she looks through my CDs' and finds Windows Server 2003 which was actually a year old evaluation version.  She calls me on my cell in the middle of the installation asking for the auth key, and I tell her to just stop what she's doing and put in the real 2k3 CD that's non-evaluation.  She does that, etc. etc.  I can't really say what happened but the result is that there's an incomplete 2003 installation on our computer and the old WinXP.  When I try to put in an OS CD the blue screen appears and it loads the drivers.  But once it brings up the menu of "create new copy of Windows" previous to the license acceptance and partitioner it just exits by itself in a matter of seconds.  So there's literally nothing I can do...When I try to finish the 2k3 installation w/ either the evaluation disc of the real disc it restarts the installation.  What's more is if I use the real 2k3 disc as the OS disc to bring the partitioner up it doesn't read it, but it reads the evaluation one...I'm not sure what I need to do...

What I need done: I need to wipe out everything on the harddrive and create a new copy of WinXP or Win2k3.

1.) Boot from the Windows XP or Server 2003 CD.
2.) When it asks you to select your partition, it will prompt you with several choices.  Choose the one that formats the file system with NTFS.  You can even choose the "Quick" option.
3.) Follow through the rest of Windows setup normally.

Don't run Windows setup from Windows.

[quote author=MyndFyre link=topic=11687.msg113557#msg113557 date=1116900044]
1.) Boot from the Windows XP or Server 2003 CD.
2.) When it asks you to select your partition, it will prompt you with several choices.  Choose the one that formats the file system with NTFS.  You can even choose the "Quick" option.
3.) Follow through the rest of Windows setup normally.

Don't run Windows setup from Windows.
[/quote]

Perhaps I was unclear, and for that I apologize, but once it's done loading all the drivers and it asks you what you want to do from the CD (note: not booting from Windows, but from the BIOS screen), it exits almost immediately for some unknown reason.

I'm assuming the computer doesn't have a floppy drive, because if it did you would have already downloaded a boot disk and formatted it that way, so maybe a linux live CD? There should be no problem formatting it from there.

I would simply format the harddrive and then install Win 98 SE (or some other lower version of Windows) on it. After that you can upgrade to a better version of Windows. If with your problem you cannot format the harddrive alone, you could try finding a format disc. I don't know much about those, but I know they do exist and they can quickly format your harddrive.

I don't think it's even possible to format my harddrive.  That's what I'm trying to do with these OS discs, is get to the partition screen and delete everything.

There is not loadable Windows.

I suppose I could try installing Linux and then get a partitioner from there?  But that still doesn't solve my problem of why it keeps exiting the windows boot disc menu once it's done loading its drivers...

[quote author=Mephisto link=topic=11687.msg113565#msg113565 date=1116903527]
I don't think it's even possible to format my harddrive.  That's what I'm trying to do with these OS discs, is get to the partition screen and delete everything.

There is not loadable Windows.

I suppose I could try installing Linux and then get a partitioner from there?  But that still doesn't solve my problem of why it keeps exiting the windows boot disc menu once it's done loading its drivers...
[/quote]
Have you tried your disc on another machine?

At least yours loads the drivers.

[quote author=MyndFyre link=topic=11687.msg113570#msg113570 date=1116905362]
[quote author=Mephisto link=topic=11687.msg113565#msg113565 date=1116903527]
I don't think it's even possible to format my harddrive.  That's what I'm trying to do with these OS discs, is get to the partition screen and delete everything.

There is not loadable Windows.

I suppose I could try installing Linux and then get a partitioner from there?  But that still doesn't solve my problem of why it keeps exiting the windows boot disc menu once it's done loading its drivers...
[/quote]
Have you tried your disc on another machine?
[/quote]

Yes, works fine on mine.  I actually installed Win2k3 recently on this computer (like 2 days ago).

Have you tried using a boot disk/fdisk?

[quote author=Mephisto link=topic=11687.msg113585#msg113585 date=1116911154]
Yes, works fine on mine.  I actually installed Win2k3 recently on this computer (like 2 days ago).
[/quote]

Perhaps you have a hardware problem, then? Does the behaviour you're seeing offer any hint as to a potential hardware problem?

[quote author=Arta[vL] link=topic=11687.msg113595#msg113595 date=1116939772]
[quote author=Mephisto link=topic=11687.msg113585#msg113585 date=1116911154]
Yes, works fine on mine.  I actually installed Win2k3 recently on this computer (like 2 days ago).
[/quote]

Perhaps you have a hardware problem, then? Does the behaviour you're seeing offer any hint as to a potential hardware problem?
[/quote]

None that I know of...Perhaps it could be a CD-ROM malfunction?  I know in the past it's had processor overheating, and we installed a new fan and it worked after that ...

This is a bizzare case I think...I really don't know what to do.  =\

Im not a hardware expert but can't you take that HDD and drop it into your computer and then format it from there.

I had some really bizarre issues with my computer in December.  After a fan failure, I ended up buying a new mobo, RAM, processor, and video card.  My drives weren't affected, but they could have been; you might want to look into and test each item on another machine.