Serious OS problem

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Hi i recently purchased a computer off of someone and when i received it, i get a black screen that says boot failure insert disk blah blah. When i put in my xp installation disk and click enter it asks if i have adequate disk space (HDD was wiped so no problem there) and if my bios memory is set to caching / shadowing (no idea what that means).

it recommends going into safe mode but it wont even let me install xp to do that let alone anything else. Is there a way for me to do this through the repair function or another type of media load?

Thank you
 
the cache option should be in the bios under settings or CMOS. Look for it and try changing it. If this doesn't work then:
-Format disk and try again.
If you have sata drive and you have problems seeing you drive during install:
-Check you bios settings and see if there is an option to change your drive from AHCI mode to IDE mode (some bios versions don't show this at all or it says to disable AHCI). Installing win xp should work now if you had problems seeing your HDD. (check google on how to enable ahci after installing windows like this)
-If you can't switch modes then another way would be to use nlite to add the ahci drivers you need to your xp installation disk (unless you have a floppy drive to add them by pressing F6 when you start the xp setup process)
 
I tried formatting it again and at the install or repair screen i proceeded to install but i received no agree to license and was hung up with the same error. Could my installation disk have gone bad? The error i get is....

***STOP: 0x0000008E (0xc0000006, 0x808A9B72, 0xF7161A14, 0x00000000)

Is there a solution to all of this and if so can i have a detailed way about a fix for it.


Thank you.
 
The only way to know is by trying with another disk.
Try cleaning the disk for dust and fingerprints and look if it is badly scratched.

EDIT: After looking on google for a bit i found out that it might be a RAM error.
check this link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315335
It can also appear because of a device connected to your PC. Try removing what you have connected to it (if you have any).

If this doesn't help then try to google for a solution for that error. there might be something that i missed.
 
Thanks for the help but nothing worked so i too the HDD and installed it in my other PC and the windows installation went without a hitch....so i think i may need a new MOBO or something. But the pc works fine again and also again thanks for your time and help
 
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