how do i install an o.s. on my slaved hdd?

When i turn on my pc (windows xp), i get boot up screen, then i get my windows xp screen, then my screen goes black, i have a cursor, but it doesn't work. I cant get into anything to do anything! I got a stupid malware or something the day it happened, so i went and deleted that file from everywhere i could find it. But in the program files it wouldn't delete, so i used unlocker, and it couldn't delete it. So i moved it onto my desk top and tried to delete it from there & unlocker said cant do it but will on the next reboot. So i rebooted it and it was still there! so i renamed it ( i was desperate), then tried to delete it again, unlocker said it will on the next reboot, so i went to reboot...nothing. The black screen, and all that i described. Regardless of how it happened, i just cant get into my pc!! So i slaved it to another pc. I can see all my docs and settings and program files. I searched for the malware and it wasn't listed. I did virus scans and cam e up with 5 viruses, so i went to reboot it...nothing. So now i'm performing test on it with partition magic 8, nothing drastic yet. But if i can't get it to go to safe mode or anything, how can i re install xp? Will my work with bootable disc? Since i dont have xp on disc but i do on a jump drive will that work? or can i do it remotely while its slaved? Sorry so long. Just frustrated. Thanks
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Reply #1 Top
You don't have a xp disk yet you have xp ?? there's only a couple of other ways i can think of that would make that possable,it's either a branded model in which case you'd have a recovery partition so find out what keys you need to press on reboot to activate it,usually F8 or F10 or it's a no brand,in which case it maybe possable to download the xp repair diskette images from microsoft that uses floppy's to reinstall.

The best thing if no xp disks, is you need either ghost or acronis to be able to image the drive ,(reinstall xp from your good xp hdd to the broken one) for this to happen you need to make the good xp hdd master & the other the slave,you've already got P8 so your 1/2 way there,depending on which version of imaging software you get,as the early versions don't let you configure imaging the partitions manually but instead are automatically proportioned

Also go download spyware terminator it will always alert you if anything attempts to install itself s unless you click ok your system should be safe

EDIT: Acronis 9.0 & above are good,i've also got ghost 2003 but it's not as configurable as acronis 9.0 tho i assume ghost 10 & above will be,i don't know why they did'nt include ghost in partmagic,it's seems like a logical move


EDIT 15-02-08: forgot to mention if the good xp hdd is not from that machine but from another computer all togeather you'll run into problems with driver issues & software incompatability
Reply #2 Top
You Might be able to boot from your Jump Drive, depending on what type of pc you have.
you can check on this by booting into your bios and going into the boot options and see if the option for booting from the Jump Drive is there. Also on some PCs you have to have the Jump Drive pluged into the PC for the option to show up in the list of choices.


Also, since you have xp on a Jump Drive, you could make a copy of the files with a cd copying program and save it as an image file(.ISO) onto your harddrive of a working pc, then you can burn it onto a disk and then you will have a bootable xp disk. I back up all of my software onto a server at work in ISO files. That way when ever your disk gets a scratch and will not work anymore you just put a disk into the cdrom and click on the ISO file icon and then your cd burning program will come on by its self and start the burnning process all on its own.

As far as making a copy of xp from another pc and trying to get it to work on another, That could turn out to be a really big pain in the, well you get the idea. the problem with that is there is a Map of your hardware configuration within the OS, so when you try to change PCs the drive will boot up saying somthing like "OS not found".

If you need a few good programs to look for Bugs on your pc try Hijackthis,its helped me out a few times, Pluse there is a site that you can past your scan results onto and it will tell you what they are (http://www.hijackthis.de/), then you can use the Hijackthis program to fix the problems.download Hijackthis from here(http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis/download)

I do this stuff all the time, in a weird way, I find it kind of relaxing. My wife says she thinks I like my computers better when ther broken so I can work on them.


I hope I was able to help