I am trying to repair install, a windows xp partition that was made with a dell cd, probably dell win xp pro sp3. The computer i'm working on has some weird problem booting off its internal cd drive, and an external usb cd drive/ But it can boot usb sticks. I downloaded a dell win xp sp3 cd.. but it has no WINNT.EXE (The file one runs when starting windows setup from a DOS partition) I'm wondering if it's normal for a dell windows setup to not have WINNT.EXE As a hack, that didn't work.. I have tried copying the file over (from a regular i386 directory - not dell) but setup says it can't find this or that files. I've tried copying over every file with overwrite-no, using teracopy. So the dell i386 directory has all the files it has plus any files in a regular i386 directory. I have checked myself and teracopy with "beyond compare"(it did it). But straight away setup says it can't copy e.g. something like oemsetup.inf but it's there and copyable, and I can copy it while in a windows installation when I access the disk.
You may have downloaded a Dell Recovery CD. That one is not meant for fresh installation, usually, only for full recovery, started by booting it.
I know what you mean.. but I don't think so. But now I am totally baffled 'cos I see the files in the image. I am going to try copying again and doing a folder compare. And copying them to the destination and doing a folder compare. I've no idea what went wrong (or what will), but that's strange. I guess something went wrong during the copy and I didn't realise 'cos I didn't do a folder compare. but the files are there in the original mounted image. D:\>dir Volume in drive D is XP_PRO_SP3 Volume Serial Number is 150C-8F66 Directory of D:\ Fri 13 Feb 2009 07:48 <DIR> $OEM$ Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 110 AUTORUN.INF Fri 13 Feb 2009 07:48 <DIR> DOCS Fri 13 Feb 2009 07:48 <DIR> DOTNETFX Fri 13 Feb 2009 07:52 <DIR> I386 Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 34,652 README.HTM Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 1,314,816 SETUP.EXE Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 85,792 SETUPXP.HTM Fri 13 Feb 2009 07:52 <DIR> SUPPORT Fri 13 Feb 2009 07:52 <DIR> VALUEADD Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 10 WIN51 Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 10 WIN51IP Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 10 WIN51IP.SP3 7 File(s) 1,435,400 bytes 6 Dir(s) 0 bytes free D:\> D:\I386>dir winnt.exe Volume in drive D is XP_PRO_SP3 Volume Serial Number is 150C-8F66 Directory of D:\I386 Mon 14 Apr 2008 00:00 84,939 WINNT.EXE 1 File(s) 84,939 bytes 0 Dir(s) 0 bytes free D:\I386>dir OEMSETUP.INF Volume in drive D is XP_PRO_SP3 Volume Serial Number is 150C-8F66 Directory of D:\I386 Fri 08 Jun 2007 05:17 8,412 OEMSETUP.INF 1 File(s) 8,412 bytes 0 Dir(s) 0 bytes free D:\I386>
the DOS partition is obviously FAT32.. not NTFS, otherwise it wouldn't be a DOS partition. But when you run windows setup from it, to install windows, then it's the same as from a CD. formatting as NTFS for installing windows.. at least that's the default anyway when formatting! But worth noting, that once you run windows setup from the DOS partition, that DOS partition is busted, it doesn't get reformatted, but it loads NTLDR not command.com, and it becomes a windows setup partition. So you can run recovery console from it or reinstall windows from it. To get it to be DOS again run has to e.g. boot a dos usb stick and run SYS D: (where D: is the FAT32 partition that was DOS but got busted, that'd fix it in a second). Also, if you run windows setup with a DOS USB stick in there, (perhaps even if running windows setup from the hard drive) then that DOS USB stick will get busted. I had to copy the directories off it into a directory on my comp, then redo the USB stick with rufus, to fix the boot record, which involved reformatting the usb stick, then copy them back on.