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Duke1032 Posted on Jul 08, 2012
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Computer refuses to boot up. Keeps asking me to insert the CD for the operating system.

I don't have the CD. The computer came with Vista already loaded. Is this a virus and is there a way around it?

1 Answer

David Hanna

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  • Expert 63 Answers
  • Posted on Nov 10, 2013
David Hanna
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Joined: Oct 30, 2013
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The only way around that is to either borrow a cd from someone or simply get win 7 and upgrade.

so place the cd in the cd drive and boot up, it should load the cd and start installing, i recommend a complete re-install not an upgrade (takes much much longer) but you will loose all your information with a re-install, so ask it to format the drive your installing it onto before you start the install. (you can upgrade if ya want to save software/files).

i think the prob here is the boot.ini has become corrupt, this is why it's asking for your cd as it needs to install itself again.

Let me know if your trying this or having probs with this, ill have a think to see what other options i can up with.

in addtion have you got backup for the startup on a floppy??? if not when you re-install make one for future, this will stop all this messing about and should start the machine.

ps i dont think this is a virus, but it could be a harddrive fualt or bad sector, so after install, goto command.exe and typr CHKDSK c: /f
and then restart, this should fix any bad sectors on the HD.

All the best

5 Related Answers

A

Anonymous

  • Posted on Aug 15, 2008

SOURCE: System board comm fault

Conda, what are the steps one generally takes to resolve an IRC conflict? Where is the UI? Is setting in the OS or BIOS or both?

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Anonymous

  • 32281 Answers
  • Posted on Nov 30, 2008

SOURCE: Thinkpad T40 operating system failure/won't boot

Check your RAM, reseat them, if you have RAM in both slots, swap them around. If possibe test them in another computer.

ItWillBoK

ItWillBoK

  • 108 Answers
  • Posted on Dec 24, 2008

SOURCE: Windows vista wont boot!

could be 2 things either your bios or your cd is dirty.
Turn the cd upside down so the silver side is facing you
Put the cd near a light and see if there is anything on it and wash it off and dry it off before you use it
Also while you are at it check to see if there is a deep scratch the problem with cd and dvd drivers is the eye get stuck even on finger prints they are so touchy same as dust ect.
If you need to get into the bios make sure the first boot is your cd or dvd drive.
you will need to press the <F2> key during POST (Power On Self Test) to enter the Acer BIOS setup.
Then you use the arrows to move through each menu.
When you get to the boot options menu highlight it.
Then hit the enter button first one should be dvd or cd drive second one should be either HDD1 or HDD0
On the bottom of the bios page it will show how to do the changes
and how to save them then it will go back to the original screen
that you were first at now hit the arrow key to the last menu and hit save and exit it will ask you if you are sure hit the key Y
that should do it.
Happy Holidays

Anonymous

  • 2 Answers
  • Posted on Jul 31, 2009

SOURCE: Error code 2000-0146 in device Hard Drive 1

I just had this same problem a few weeks ago. This error code means you have a bad sector in your hard drive which is cheap and easy to fix. You just need to unscrew the bottom screws holding your hard drive in and place the old cover on the new hard drive you buy. Screw that new one in and reload your programs. Your computer will be as good as knew after that. Look on your invoice to get the hard drive specs so you can buy a new one or just enter your service tag on the dell site and check out the specs of the ones they offer for upgrade.

Anonymous

  • 466 Answers
  • Posted on Nov 24, 2009

SOURCE: cant install OS BOOTMGR is missing

Usually the installer should have a function to allow you to wipe the disk, or delete partitions.

If it doesn't, and you do not care about the hard disk content, and it is acceptable to wipe out the entire hard disk, you can do so in Linux.

(There is a utility which will do everything for you - Darik's Boot and Nuke, you find it at http://www.dban.org/ . I'm also giving you the "manual" instructions below, though).

Boot with Ubuntu Live, open Terminal, become root with 'su'.

Now you need to know how your disk is "seen" by Linux. Since you only have the one disk and nonexistent disks will fail, we can try all the likely hard disk names. The first command that does NOT fail saying "No such device" is the good one:

fdisk /dev/sda
fdisk /dev/hda
fdisk /dev/cciss/c0d0
fdisk /dev/rd/c0d0
fdisk /dev/ida/c0d0

One of these commands (likely the first or second) will give you a menu ending in "Command (m for help)". type "p" and press Enter to list partitions; there should be only one and it should be a Linux type, probably 83. If it isn't, stop - something's wrong. But it should be.

The first column will say something like "/dev/sda3". Note the number at the end, here "3". You'll likely have "1".

Now type, "d" and press Enter. You'll be asked which partition to delete. Type the same number you saw earlier. Type "w" and Enter to save changes and exit. Type "q" and Enter to exit without changes. The partition can still be recovered, but the disk is now "unlocked".

Reboot and install the OS of your choice. The previous hard disk contents will be permanently lost, and you'll get a shiny new empty partition with a working OS.

You can also erase the disk without using fdisk (but you still need to know how it's named, and for that you can use fdisk) by typing

dd if = /dev/zero of = /dev/sda bs=1M count = 12

Here we suppose the disk turned out to be /dev/sda.

This will write twelve megabytes of zeroes to the beginning of the disk, effectively wiping any OS information there could be there. All disk data are as good as lost. The disk is now, to all installing purposes, a perfect blank. Reboot and install the OS of your choice.

Just for the record, omitting "count" will zealously wipe out the whole hard disk surface, all partitions, all data, irretrievably (except using residual hysteresis detection equipment - doubt if even NSA would take the trouble). This can be handy when decommissioning computers.

There are also

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