Reformat the hard driver

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VicMom

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I have Dell Inspiron 9300 which has window xp home edition os installed before. I installed window 2003 server in the computer. I forgot the password. So I can’t login in the Windows 2003 server. I put my windows 2003 cd into the Cd rom. I can hear the cd rom loading . it did not reformat the harddrive. I hit shift +F10. it did not work,too.

I could not boot the window xp home edition , too. It gave me the following error message:

window could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected book disk. Check boot path and disk hard
Please check the windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.


I started the computer Windows Server 2003 as backup recover mode according to some instruction over the internet. I can’t login in as machine administration. It kept giving me password not correct message.

I never set up admin password.

I am trying to recover from a problem using the recovery console. It asks for an Administrator password, but I have never set this up.

Any suggestions appreciated. According to some suggestion for
There is a problem with using the Recovery console if Windows was installed from a sysprep image, as it is with a preinstalled copy. But it need floppy disk. But I do not have floppy driver. I do not know how to fix this problem.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q308402

I do not want to buy any other computer. I just want to fix it to use.

Since I do not have window xp home edition any more, I just want to use a computer. I want to install my window xp profession version.While I put the window xp profession in the CD drive. It could not boot, too.


I tried to use ctrl+F11 to restore the system file. I did not work.
 
Hi

your post is a tad confusing,

So originally you had XP Home, but then you installed Server 2003 on the same partition that XP home was on. This will delete XP unless you chose to install a side by side install (never a good Idea), and now you cant remember the password for 2003.

You have deleted the hidden source partition that the CTRL+F11 uses to recover the laptop back to its factory condition, this is why it doesnt work.

So you need to install another OS but your CD wont boot, have you gone into the BIOS of the laptop and chose the CD to be the first bootable device, have you tried the disk in another machine to make sure it works, have you checked when turning on the laptop for a message such as "F10 for boot menu".

It is possible that the CDRom unit is designed not to be a bootable device to prevent the OS accidentally being overwritten, I say this as Dell have used the CTRL+F11 option on nearly all the laptops they produce now.

Regards
 
You don't reformat the hard driver, you format a hard drive or a memory stick... just for the record :)
 
Thanks. By the way, Before I login in and Window Xp load, i put in a password before . Right now I F2 and try to unlock it. It said the password is not correct. Do you know how to unlock ? At that time I tried to lock the computer so that my son could not play game. it gave a lot headache.
 
What country are you posting from? Passwords are case sensitive... That means capitals or lower case or mixed. Write down your passwords from now on please
 
I am writing in US. I can use my password to login and the window xp load. but right now I do not want to use password login before the window xp load. I F2 before the window xp load and change in the security. It did not not allow me. Thx.
 
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