cannot reinstall windows xp from cd on dell e520 cpu.
This 7 year old machine has been mothballed for over a year, but now i want to use it.
I logged in as mydomain\rberke but I ran into some minor issues, so i used msconfig to set safeboot and restarted.
Oh crap -- I forgot the administrator password so I can not log in !!!! (Next time I will try to remember to use safeboot with networking!!!)
I tried every possible password I might have used including blank password. Tried booting to last know good configuration. I tried booting to safe mode with networking. Unfortunately, the msconfig setting takes priority and overrides all those tries.
I then tried booting to an xp pro service pack 2 CD hoping that the recovery console and BCEDIT might save me.
I cannot get it to boot from the cd. I think the cd drive might be misconfigured.
When i hit f12 during boot I get to the boot menu and tab down to select "onboard cd" the computer freezes.
I then retried using the actual dell re-installation disk that came with computer. still no luck.
I also tried setting bios to only boot from the onboard cd, but the boot hangs when it tries the cd.
I suspect the cd drive may not be configured correctly, but I can't see any obvious bios settings to tweak.
I am willing to take the hard drive out and mount it into a USB case if needed. But, I am not willing to replace the cd drive
The computer is not worth a lot of work, but I hope somebody has some suggestions.
I logged in as mydomain\rberke but I ran into some minor issues, so i used msconfig to set safeboot and restarted.
Oh crap -- I forgot the administrator password so I can not log in !!!! (Next time I will try to remember to use safeboot with networking!!!)
I tried every possible password I might have used including blank password. Tried booting to last know good configuration. I tried booting to safe mode with networking. Unfortunately, the msconfig setting takes priority and overrides all those tries.
I then tried booting to an xp pro service pack 2 CD hoping that the recovery console and BCEDIT might save me.
I cannot get it to boot from the cd. I think the cd drive might be misconfigured.
When i hit f12 during boot I get to the boot menu and tab down to select "onboard cd" the computer freezes.
I then retried using the actual dell re-installation disk that came with computer. still no luck.
I also tried setting bios to only boot from the onboard cd, but the boot hangs when it tries the cd.
I suspect the cd drive may not be configured correctly, but I can't see any obvious bios settings to tweak.
I am willing to take the hard drive out and mount it into a USB case if needed. But, I am not willing to replace the cd drive
The computer is not worth a lot of work, but I hope somebody has some suggestions.
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ASKER
I'll put in a cd and floppy drive tomorrow and post back the results.
rberke
rberke
ASKER
I made the win 10 stick last year and it worked fine for upgrading 5 Windows 7 computers to windows 10. But, I am pretty sure that 8gig sticks are too big for a 7 year old bios to handle.
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could not boot the computer even with a new CD.
but, I stuck the harddrive into another computer and used a Linux based password zapper to blank the password.
Returned the harddrive to the original cpu and now all is well.
I will give points as best I can.
but, I stuck the harddrive into another computer and used a Linux based password zapper to blank the password.
Returned the harddrive to the original cpu and now all is well.
I will give points as best I can.
tx for feedback, and glad its running
ASKER
I wonder if I can boot from USB like a flash drive? I tried using an 8gig win 10 upgrade flash drive but CPU was totally non functional with stick in front panel, and stick was ignored when the back panel.
Perhaps a smaller USB stick would work?
I also have some scrap dell computers, and I suppose I could try swapping in the CD.
I also have an old floppy drive that I could put in (there is an empty slot that could take it.
Th