Computer Guide Center

How do I install Windows XP on a crashed laptop using the startup disc?

Everytime I start up my laptop, it goes stright to a message with a bright blue background and white words. It says something to the effect of "Your computer has come across an error and needs to be restarted." All I want to do is get the Windows XP startup disc to reboot everything. It doesn't bother me if I lose all of the information on my computer. Thanks.

Public Comments

1. first crash the CD and make it crashed XP
2. Just put the disk in and for the most part it will take care of itself. Much easier than you would think. If you need any help, feel free to email or im me :0)
3. Well the same situation has happened to me Since u said that u dont mind if u lose all ur information and data so my advice: Insert the Windows Xp Professional bootable CD and reboot the pc It will boot from the cdand then follow the instructions format and have a fresh installation go . Then u have ur desktop back!!!!
4. Usually you just turn it off, and put the restore CD in, and then boot it up, and it should take off and walk you through the re-installation process. If not, see if you can get into your BIOS (usually by pressing a key like del or F1 or something while booting). Make sure your CD drive is set to be bootable. Then try it again. If it still won't work you might have hardware issues.
5. I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but try unplugging the hard drive and see if the computer will go after the cd, then plug it in quick once it gets the cd recognized. Then start and install or repair. I've done that under slightly different circumstances. You can also try to get it to boot from the cd instead of the hard drive by changing the boot order in the bios. Get into bios when you first turn on the computer by hitting the key they offer for a couple seconds, usually f10 or f12 or delete or something. Then find the section for boot order, etc. and put the cd first and/or disable the hard drive from the list. This is assuming your bios is working well.
6. Start your computer and keep pressing delete to enter the bios. Set the boot order so that it boots from the CD-ROM first. Save and Exit. When the computer restarts it'll run the Windows cd. When it gets to the screen where you have a few options, choose to run the Recovery Console by pressing R. When the consoles up (in DOS mode), type "format c:". Then type "y" when it tells you everything's going to be deleted. It will now delete everything on your computer, after it's done the computer will restart and boot from the Windows cd again and you can now reinstall windows by following the step by step directions.
7. First try pressing F8 key during a reboot or cold boot...when you see your BIOS screen pop up at startup keep pressing the F8 key untill you get to the startup diag screen and choose safe mode...then see if your computer starts up...it will go into the admin account...there you can trouble shoot what is going on....if that doesn't work for you and you do need to reformat...just put in your Windows XP cd and choose a new install and choose to format your hard drive...your then good to go!
8. Yeah its called the blue screen of death. To reinstall the os you need to insert the disk before startup. Your going to boot of this disk. If all goes well it will take you to the windows xp install. Its way to much to explain the step by step on here, but you will lose all your data on that laptop by doing this. The most impotent part is you have to delete your partition's and crate a new one. Remember that part. If you cd does not boot then you have to go into the bios by hitting F2 or F4 when system is starting up to setup your CD ROM to boot up on start up before the Hard drive. Its alot to do but with your laptop on life support there is not much you can do. Good luck
9. Here are step-by-step instructions (including screenshots) that will help you reinstall XP on your system