Sooooooo Confused Help!

Ok so I got my HP dv5000t today and wanted to reformat because it took FOREVER to do anything with the amount of extra software installed. I used partition magic to format the drive, then inserted my XP cd. Windows XP won't recognize that there is even a hard drive, and I don't have a floppy drive to do a startup disk. I am totally stumped on what to do because nothing works now. It just says: NTLDR missing, CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart.

Please someone help me. I just want to clear everything off on there and get XP back! It's useless now!

 

Sounds like your MBR got deleted somehow.

Why don't you boot off your windows xp cd?

Go into your bios by hitting F2 at bootup (check your manual it might be a different key) and then boot off the windows cd. You will go into the setup and you can create partitions in there and format and create a MBR.

MBR = Master Boot Record.

Edit:: Never use anything other than your windows xp cd to format a drive.

 

I agree w/ Shampoo. You probably just need to set the BIOS to recognize the CD as a boot device. Once you do, it should boot right into the Windows Setup program. When you get to the screen that asks to select a partition, I would select the partition and delete it, then re-create a new one and format it before continuing on with the install.

 

I did boot off the Windows XP CD. It runs through all the general setup at first, then asks if I want to SETUP Windows XP on the disk. When I press ENTER, it says that no harddrive was found.


I did some research and found out that I need to press S when booting off the CD. That will allow me to install a special HP OEM driver so that XP will recognize the hard drive. It says I can use a floppy or USB MASS STORAGE DEVICE. I don't have the floppy drive, so I have to use a usb one. Now, I don't know where to find the right OEM driver. The computer wont run now and I need help. Thank you

 

This seems to be the site for all the HP Drivers for that notebook, but I don't see any special I/O drivers?

I know this will probably just re-install all the junk you're trying to get rid of, but do the Recovery Disks work?

 

I do not have the recovery disks... I dont have any DVD's and it would have taken 13 CD's to make it. Also I have never encountered this problem so I wasnt expecting to have to use them. ((

 

Man, how they get away with selling hardware w/o the physical disks is something I'll never understand...

So, what are you using to re-install XP? A retail disk?

Have you tried the F11 during boot and selecting the 'R' option? According to the links above, as long as you didn't delete the Recovery partition, you should be able to restore the OS w/o any CDs. I'm sure, in a worst case scenario, that you can get/buy a set of disks from HP, or maybe grab some images off the 'net from another HP dv5000t user.

 

I did delete the recovery partition, and contacted HP. They said they would send me recovery disks for free.

On the other hand, I read in another forum that I could go into the BIOS, and disable SATA, then install windows XP somehow after that. This sucks so bad...

Does anyone know if the recovery disks would re-install all the ****py bloatware at the same time?

 

It depends... I've seen some manufactures that give you a 'clean' OS disk, and any bloatware is in with the drivers and other CDs that come with the PC, and I've seen others give you a single disk that installs a base build with all the drivers and bloatware.

Does that laptop have a SATA drive? If not, then disabling SATA in the BIOS shouldn't be a problem, but if it does, I have no clue how Windows will recognize the HD. (I thought most laptop drives are still PATA...) Regardless, it can't hurt to try...

 

GENIUS! It is a SATA drive, and confirmed by HP, if I disabled it, I could install xp. Well, I did, and its 23% formatting!!! Boy am I happy. Then I guess I just change it back to SATA after its all installed? Thanks guys