After thinking my computer was running well I made a restore point to that effect, after defragging and using check disc. I continued using my computer and a couple of times rebooted without problems after installing windows updates. The next morning when booting up I was completely locked out at the welcome page, asking me to validate my copy of Windows. This I did over 4 years ago, and would have ticked the box to say yes, unfortunately the mouse locked.
I have put another copy of XP onto my D: drive to get here and write this, but with only 25 days for activation, which I do not want. Has anybody any idea please what has happened. I do have back-ups but they would only work if I reformatted my C: drive which is a lot of bother. I have tried starting in safe mode, last good known configuration, but it always locks at the welcome screen.
Can anyone recommend software that will allow me to copy my Windows onto another hard drive and beable to boot up from there? I appreciate any help you can give me.
I have a new Dell XPSl notebook. When I go to the MS download site for an ugrade or new download I am asked to validate my windows software. My Windows XP Media software is genuine and came pre-loaded from Dell. It will not validate. The Active X controls work in all other circumstances but not for validating Windows. I have tried resetting my Security settings but nothing works. I have tried removing my virus protection and all spyware apps but still no success. I have turned off pop up blocker and phishing filters also.
I just recently installed windows xp home, and the computer freezes on "windows is starting up" screen for like 10 minutes. there's no malware and everything seems to be fine.
all applications locked. i shut down by pressing and holding the button but when started up again the error message "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt <windows root>system32hal.dll" appeared.chkdsk came up with no errors? Tried BOOTCFG/LIST, BOOTCFG/SCAN same error message, not sure what to do now?
using 2nd drive for slave start my pc up comes up drive locked password hit enter a few times windows boots up 2nd drive not unlocked i know the password
Running Windows XP Home Edition SP1 and when using the error checking tool, after double clicking my computer, then right clicking the C drive, then clicking properties, clicking tools and under clicking the check boxes. Rebooting the computer a message appears, the volume is locked and error checking cannot be run. The computer then proceeds to reboot my settings. How can the volume be unlocked? With it's various problems, Windows XP Service Pack 2 is not allowed on my computer.
I have a laptop that runs Windows XP. Recently I opened it and an error message that says that the computer is locked and only the administrator can log on appeared. But, I'm the administrator of the computer! It is not apart of any network so no one else was using it.The keyboard is also locked so I can't type anything.
I only have 12% free space on my D hard drive and when I try to go into the drive to delete some files/programs, I get a lock icon and I get a message that I can't delete. It's a back-up for the computer and it is locked. How can I go into the drive to delete some items. I know I don't need all those files/programs backed up. I have a HP Media computer and I have XP.
I have 2 drives, one with Windows and such, and the other with about 1,000 games that my girlfriend plays. She let her grandson on, unsupervised, and the next thing is a trashed system drive. Unfortunately, there was no way to save it, so I did a format and clean reinstall of XP Home. Goback was on the drive, and there was no way to uninstall it before the reinstall. The reinstall went fine, but the GAME drive is virtually inaccessible. It doesn't show in My Computer, but does show in Admin Tools, Disk Management. However, the drive name is shown as F(F. It should either be D: or F: ( there are 2 optical drives). I can't change the name or drive letter. I get the error "the drive is locked".
I tried Partition Magic, and it will change the info, temporarily. Also, PM shows the drive as *.F It doesn't give any error message, and says the change has been applied, but it obviously hasn't. I searched this forum for "hard drive locked" and followed suggestions that I had not tried previously. The smiley replaced a colon; the entry should read F(F. Sometimes I think I might know what I'm doing, and then I realize, maybe not.
i just took my old hard drive out of my old computer and put in my new comp, but the user profile i was using in old HD is now locked and windows says i have no access to this folder? How can i gain acess to all my files out of this folder now through my new xp?
I recently got a new PC and stuck my old hard drive in. I can now open all my files except the ones under Documents and Settings. Access is denied comes up when i try to do anything with them. I tried the windows help, and it told me to go to the Security tab under options and take ownership, but there is no Security tab. What do I do? (Running XP Media Center, Old hard drive is set to D:)
I dropped old laptop. There is a lot of information on it. As I have one of the small external cases for a laptop drive I installed the HD from the dead beast with the hope I could save the info on it. IT WORKS!! but when I try to copy or view anything in /documents and settings it denies me access. I tried changing the boot order to start on USB deviced to try and boot from it but it doesn't seem to see it.
I did a system restore on my laptop after recklessly cleaning files off of my hard drive. Since then I can't access my d:/, so I can't reinstall anything, including my internet and Microsoft Office software. If I look in the control panel I can see everything (I didn't lose any personal files), but D: always comes up as D:/RECOVERY, then fiendishly warns me not to look inside (which I haven't).
ive got a hard drive that i could accsess all the time. Then one day no workie now when I try to acceses the drive I get a window that pops up and says Compaq Recovery partition warning. This area of your hard disk (or partition)contains files used for your system recovery. donot delete or alter these files. anychange to these files could delete or alter these files
When installing a larger main drive, how do I get the drivers copied onto the slave before I take out the main one I wonder is there a simple way of doing this, I am using Windows XP home edition, the PC is an oldish one and isn't any specific make, so I can't get any clever programs from the manufacturers site
This is really a question more than a problem. I'm running a PC with 2 HDs. I am changing the boot drive C: for a larger disk. Now ordinarily I would use a backup program like Ghost or whatever. Now my situation is slightly different in that most of my startup programs are installed on my second HD E:, the C: drive being the boot drive with XP installed.
What my intention is. Is to take out drive E: Then replace that with my new drive. Then I was going to boot in Safe Mode and use the Windows Files & Transfer wizard to copy the C: drive to The new drive. The last thing to do then is swap the C: with the newly installed drive and replace the original E: drive. I hope that all makes sense.
I have a "Shadow Star Icon" from a Microsoft website informing me that Microsoft is unable to validate my operating system. It launches everytime I start the computer and several times throughout the day. At startup the computer will not get to the home screen without making a selection of whether to correct now or later. It offers me the opportunity to "purchase validation." Everything on my computer is legitemate. I've looked in the System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe) startup and services and don't recognize it. I have a HP Pavilion a647c, w/Windows XP. This is the site that it directs me too:If you scroll to the 3rd section of the webpage you will see the "star" that I refrenced earlier. Bottom line is I don't know if this is for real.
I am a newbie and would apreciate any help/advice with my enquiry. I have a problem with the Windows XP Pro Sp2 I recently purchased. I am unable to update/validate it as it states that it is not genuine for home use, & only has a VLK licence.
Computer has a bad virus and am planning on wiping the drive and re-installing windows. Problem is that I cannot find my key code to validate windows. Is it somewhere on my computer?
I have a legal copy of XP which has been registered. There are 92 updates that will not install. I isolated KB892130 as the validation tool that will not validate with Microsoft before the other updates can be installed. I have turned off Avast (antivirus), but did not disable it. I have a laptop with Avast on it which has updated perfectly. I have forced validation from DOS but this still doesn't let the updates go ahead
I've always downloaded the "Windows Update" that pops up on the task bar, and it suspects that I'm using a non-genuine copy of windows.Can this be because I share the same copy of Windows with a couple other different people? Anyhow, my main point is, how do I uninstall those updates that I've installed so this "you may be a victim of a counterfeit copy of Windows" which appears at startup.I was going to try system restore, but if someone had a better solution, it'll be great.
Had to reformat my drive and now whenever i use my win xp sp2 install disc...i first format the drive and create the proper partition..the windows disc then starts copying files to the computer but at a point i get an error message saying that windows setup cannot copy the file...and it tells me which file. I redid this several times and each time at a some point in the copying it gives me this error...each time with a different file name What should i do at this stage?
When I try to boot my computer it says:"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:<Windows root>system32hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file." I tried to boot my computer with the OS cd and got nothing.
I get an copy error, when trying to install windows components from control panel add/remove windows components. I have the right win xp sp2 cd in running and it says it cant find a specific file its looking for, but then when i click browse i see that its there in the cd the exact file i double click it and it doesn't recognize it or something again what can i do about this?
I have a desktop and a laptop but decided I needed to reinstall windows on the desktop. I backed up everything and started the re-boot. I deleted the partition and installed a fresh copy of windows. The first thing I noticed while it was installing was that it said it could not copy the files: presetup.cmd & setupORG. I skipped these and continued the installation but once the setup restarted my PC it hits an error screen saying that because these files were not copied setup has to abort.
Just wiped my hard drive clean and am trying to reinstall OS but get a Disk Boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. When i add the cd it just repeats Disk Boot failure, insert system disk and press enter. Have wiped my hard drive before and haven't had this problem. The boot order is correct in the BIOS and i havent touched any cables.
I've had XP installed 9 months and working great. Yesterday while looking at EBAY, the screen went black, and the computer locked up.Thru trials, I ended up reformating the HD and starting from scratch. XP starts the installation and at 37 minutes left to install, everything freezes. I have to restart and XP installation begins again at about 47 minutes left to install, then at 37 minutes left to finish, the system locks again, and again, again, and again, at 37 minutes to finish.
computer started to run very poorly: lagging, freezing up, windows end task etc finnaly one day it would not go into desktop. would only give option to start in normal mode or safe mode. so i tried starting in both but would only restart into the same option screen.I decided it was best to format harddrive and reload windows. insert windows disk and proceeded to format partition and reinstall windows. it formats all that way to 90 % and then states cannot format partition further, harddrive problems and to trouble shoot manual. tried quick format and repair but still nothing.tried restarting without reinstall disk. says cant access OS of course!
ok i am trying to format my hard drive and reintaling my windows XP b/c right now im running windows xp spanish and i want english.. so when i try to boot in the CD. i go into the windows setup blue screen. but from there it doesnt advance. what can i do?
I made some holiday videos and saved them to DVD. They are about 2.1 gigs each. Now I want to edit them I cant copy them to my hard drive. Loads of room but it just comes up with 49 minutes left and keeps going. If I look at the properties of the file on the harddisk it's the right size as if it's been copied. The problem is that it never seems to finish and if I cancel the file disappears.