Problems reformatting hard drive.

[maai]

I have a Compaq computer with Windows XP. I got a trojan horse and my hard
drive had become pretty cluttered, so I decided to reformat it. I did done
this once before with no problem, using disks I made when I first got the
computer.

Don't know if it matters, but when my daughter's computer came down with
several viruses, she tried the disks in her computer. They are read only, so
I'm not sure if the viruses on her computer could have affected the disks?

At any rate, this time the reformatting isn't working. In the meantime, all
the old software is wiped off my computer. If I start it without a recovery
disk, it still goes to the recovery screen. I've tried to reformat several
times, and each time one of 3 things happens:

1.My computer gets hung up on a disk and it stops at 10% or 12%, hanging
there for hours. This most recently happened when I was on disk 3 at 10%,
but a few days ago I made it to 14% on disk 4, so I don't think it is an
error in the disks.

2. My computer turns itself off. This can happen anytime: in the middle of
disk 2 or 10 seconds after I turn the computer on.

3. I get the following error screen:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent
damage to your computer.

"The video driver failed to initialize

"If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your
computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

"Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If
this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for
any windows updates you might need.

"If problems continue..."

I'm pretty discouraged but have come to windows xp newsgroups before for
answers and had good luck, so here I am again. I appreciate any help anyone
can give.

[Mark Adams[_2_]]

"maai" wrote:

> I have a Compaq computer with Windows XP. I got a trojan horse and my hard
> drive had become pretty cluttered, so I decided to reformat it. I did done
> this once before with no problem, using disks I made when I first got the
> computer.
>
> Don't know if it matters, but when my daughter's computer came down with
> several viruses, she tried the disks in her computer. They are read only, so
> I'm not sure if the viruses on her computer could have affected the disks?
>
> At any rate, this time the reformatting isn't working. In the meantime, all
> the old software is wiped off my computer. If I start it without a recovery
> disk, it still goes to the recovery screen. I've tried to reformat several
> times, and each time one of 3 things happens:
>
> 1.My computer gets hung up on a disk and it stops at 10% or 12%, hanging
> there for hours. This most recently happened when I was on disk 3 at 10%,
> but a few days ago I made it to 14% on disk 4, so I don't think it is an
> error in the disks.
>
> 2. My computer turns itself off. This can happen anytime: in the middle of
> disk 2 or 10 seconds after I turn the computer on.
>
> 3. I get the following error screen:
>
> "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent
> damage to your computer.
>
> "The video driver failed to initialize
>
> "If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your
> computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
>
> "Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If
> this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for
> any windows updates you might need.
>
> "If problems continue..."
>
> I'm pretty discouraged but have come to windows xp newsgroups before for
> answers and had good luck, so here I am again. I appreciate any help anyone
> can give.

Download and run a live Linnux CD such as Knoppix. Set the computer to boot
from CD, as Knoppix runs from the disk. You can view and copy your Windows
files to external media for recovery when necessary.
If the Knoppix disk hangs, balks, or fails to install or run, you have
hardware issues that you'll need to fix before installing Windows.

[sgopus]

it's possible the cdrom drive has changed alignment since you burned those
cd's and this would cause you, to not be able to read them properly,
Generally cd's once closed can't be written to again, so no worry bout a
virus writing to them, unless they are cdrw. my suggestion is to try a
different cdrom drive, they are pretty cheap. One other question, you are
calling these backup discs, it sounds as if they are restore cd's rather than
backups, a big difference between the two.

restore cd's take the pc back to as new state from the manufactor. backup
cd's merely contain backup files, not usually an image of the operating
system and only used once the operating system is reinstalled and operating,
can you clarify which is which? The clue was you made them right after you
got your pc.

"maai" wrote:

> I have a Compaq computer with Windows XP. I got a trojan horse and my hard
> drive had become pretty cluttered, so I decided to reformat it. I did done
> this once before with no problem, using disks I made when I first got the
> computer.
>
> Don't know if it matters, but when my daughter's computer came down with
> several viruses, she tried the disks in her computer. They are read only, so
> I'm not sure if the viruses on her computer could have affected the disks?
>
> At any rate, this time the reformatting isn't working. In the meantime, all
> the old software is wiped off my computer. If I start it without a recovery
> disk, it still goes to the recovery screen. I've tried to reformat several
> times, and each time one of 3 things happens:
>
> 1.My computer gets hung up on a disk and it stops at 10% or 12%, hanging
> there for hours. This most recently happened when I was on disk 3 at 10%,
> but a few days ago I made it to 14% on disk 4, so I don't think it is an
> error in the disks.
>
> 2. My computer turns itself off. This can happen anytime: in the middle of
> disk 2 or 10 seconds after I turn the computer on.
>
> 3. I get the following error screen:
>
> "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent
> damage to your computer.
>
> "The video driver failed to initialize
>
> "If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your
> computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
>
> "Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If
> this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for
> any windows updates you might need.
>
> "If problems continue..."
>
> I'm pretty discouraged but have come to windows xp newsgroups before for
> answers and had good luck, so here I am again. I appreciate any help anyone
> can give.

[maai]

They are restore CDs, to restore factory settings. I backed up files to a
disk right before trying to reformat my hard drive, but I'm talking about the
disks I made when I first got my computer.

"sgopus" wrote:

> it's possible the cdrom drive has changed alignment since you burned those
> cd's and this would cause you, to not be able to read them properly,
> Generally cd's once closed can't be written to again, so no worry bout a
> virus writing to them, unless they are cdrw. my suggestion is to try a
> different cdrom drive, they are pretty cheap. One other question, you are
> calling these backup discs, it sounds as if they are restore cd's rather than
> backups, a big difference between the two.
>
> restore cd's take the pc back to as new state from the manufactor. backup
> cd's merely contain backup files, not usually an image of the operating
> system and only used once the operating system is reinstalled and operating,
> can you clarify which is which? The clue was you made them right after you
> got your pc.
>
> "maai" wrote:
>
> > I have a Compaq computer with Windows XP. I got a trojan horse and my hard
> > drive had become pretty cluttered, so I decided to reformat it. I did done
> > this once before with no problem, using disks I made when I first got the
> > computer.
> >
> > Don't know if it matters, but when my daughter's computer came down with
> > several viruses, she tried the disks in her computer. They are read only, so
> > I'm not sure if the viruses on her computer could have affected the disks?
> >
> > At any rate, this time the reformatting isn't working. In the meantime, all
> > the old software is wiped off my computer. If I start it without a recovery
> > disk, it still goes to the recovery screen. I've tried to reformat several
> > times, and each time one of 3 things happens:
> >
> > 1.My computer gets hung up on a disk and it stops at 10% or 12%, hanging
> > there for hours. This most recently happened when I was on disk 3 at 10%,
> > but a few days ago I made it to 14% on disk 4, so I don't think it is an
> > error in the disks.
> >
> > 2. My computer turns itself off. This can happen anytime: in the middle of
> > disk 2 or 10 seconds after I turn the computer on.
> >
> > 3. I get the following error screen:
> >
> > "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent
> > damage to your computer.
> >
> > "The video driver failed to initialize
> >
> > "If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your
> > computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
> >
> > "Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If
> > this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for
> > any windows updates you might need.
> >
> > "If problems continue..."
> >
> > I'm pretty discouraged but have come to windows xp newsgroups before for
> > answers and had good luck, so here I am again. I appreciate any help anyone
> > can give.

[Gordon]

"maai" > wrote in message
...
> They are restore CDs, to restore factory settings. I backed up files to a
> disk right before trying to reformat my hard drive, but I'm talking about
> the
> disks I made when I first got my computer.
>

Well there's no point in trying them on any other computer unless it's the
same make and model.
If cleaning doesn't work then two things are possible. a) the CD drive is
bad or b) the disks are damaged.
You can try a Live Linux CD as mentioned before - if that works OK then your
CD drive is OK and the disks are bad. An answer to this is to find a friend
who has an OEM copy of Windows XP, make a copy of it and install from that.
There's nothing illegal about this AFAICS as you still have your Product Key
which is what you pay for, not the CD media.
You will have to download the particular XP drivers for your model machine
from another computer first....
One advantage of doing this is that you then have a CD you can do repairs
from rather than a complete factory restore...

[maai]

"Gordon" wrote:

>
> "maai" > wrote in message
> ...
> > They are restore CDs, to restore factory settings. I backed up files to a
> > disk right before trying to reformat my hard drive, but I'm talking about
> > the
> > disks I made when I first got my computer.
> >
>
> Well there's no point in trying them on any other computer unless it's the
> same make and model.
> If cleaning doesn't work then two things are possible. a) the CD drive is
> bad or b) the disks are damaged.
> You can try a Live Linux CD as mentioned before - if that works OK then your
> CD drive is OK and the disks are bad. An answer to this is to find a friend
> who has an OEM copy of Windows XP, make a copy of it and install from that.
> There's nothing illegal about this AFAICS as you still have your Product Key
> which is what you pay for, not the CD media.
> You will have to download the particular XP drivers for your model machine
> from another computer first....
> One advantage of doing this is that you then have a CD you can do repairs
> from rather than a complete factory restore...
>
> .
> Want to thank everyone for their suggestions. It occurred to me while I was half asleep that I had added extra RAM & it might be affecting the reformat, and indeed that was the key. Once I took it out I was able to format the hard drive, no problem. I didn't even mention the RAM in my original post cause it didn't occur to me... Anyway, thanks again.