Not sure I want win8 on my primary computer (win7 working pretty well) but I hate to fall too far behind the times. I have several older laptops, and would like to ease into win8. So I started with a ~6 year old laptop running XP, a machine normally used only for data file backup.
The win8 DVD did not boot, and I assumed it was a bad DVD drive, so, I pulled out my external DVD drive, and without paying much attention ran the install from inside winXP. Bad mistake. All the files seem to have copied over, but when it reached the reboot part of the process, it failed. Get a black screen, Missing file ...system32\winload.exe
I can still use winXP on this machine from this point, because the error screen's "Older operating system" choice still works. But I cannot get this old machine to boot from its DVD drive, or the external DVD drive (and I have tried all the BIOS boot-order settings). So, I cannot use the original XP install disk for recovery. And I cannot get the machine to boot normally, without hitting the error screen, and having to choose the older OS manually.
I would like to get this box running normally for backup purposes, before moving on to another for win8 evaluation. I thought maybe there is a way to change the boot sequence away from win8, back to the XP boot. So, finally, my question, is there a simple, manual process anyone can suggest for restoring boot manager?
(I am not a pro, but I know how to use Notepad, and can find my way around the C: drive with reasonable dexterity)
The win8 DVD did not boot, and I assumed it was a bad DVD drive, so, I pulled out my external DVD drive, and without paying much attention ran the install from inside winXP. Bad mistake. All the files seem to have copied over, but when it reached the reboot part of the process, it failed. Get a black screen, Missing file ...system32\winload.exe
I can still use winXP on this machine from this point, because the error screen's "Older operating system" choice still works. But I cannot get this old machine to boot from its DVD drive, or the external DVD drive (and I have tried all the BIOS boot-order settings). So, I cannot use the original XP install disk for recovery. And I cannot get the machine to boot normally, without hitting the error screen, and having to choose the older OS manually.
I would like to get this box running normally for backup purposes, before moving on to another for win8 evaluation. I thought maybe there is a way to change the boot sequence away from win8, back to the XP boot. So, finally, my question, is there a simple, manual process anyone can suggest for restoring boot manager?
(I am not a pro, but I know how to use Notepad, and can find my way around the C: drive with reasonable dexterity)
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows7
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Dell/XPS17