quick answer needed please!

eracer2006 · 3 Jun 2007 at 20:04

ok having problems with my xp install, where im typing from now.

when i boot up, its fine, then the ram seems to be used up but nothing seems to be running, everything gets slow, then explorer crashes, then explorer.exe crashes and its reboot time.

Under ubuntu everything is fine, however ubuntu is a pita to use, as the mouse pad behaves erratically does stuff on its own etc :S

so i wondered if i use the xp cd to format my partition and reinstall xp pro over it ?

but which partition(s) do i need to format :

I installed ubuntu under dual boot after xp which was already on the laptop, so im guessing i need to format c: however what about the other ones. iirc one of them is a small boot partiion for ubuntu, then theres a swap partition, and the main partition, however this doesnt add up in the the screenshot.

cheers!

t31os · 3 Jun 2007 at 21:04

C drive is the windows drive, D is i'm guessing a storage drive for windows, and i'd hazard a guess at the unknown partitions being ubuntu with the smaller of the two being the pagefile area, then the Unallocated area is free space that never got used and partitioned.

I would have thought running dual boot with that many partitions you'd have an idea what was what.

The drive with (System) is the Windows OS drive though...

eracer2006 · 3 Jun 2007 at 23:45

drive c is system according to win xp pro cd.

ok my windows is buggered up now, and i cant even get rid of it !

the problem is explorer.exe....... it uses 97% of the cpu then crashes.

so i put xp cd in, booted off it, went to install xp pro over xp home........pc shut down.

ok i thought, did the same steps, pc shut down when i pressed enter.

ok so i did them again, this time choosing to remove partition.............pc shut down.

so it seems i have a borked install that something is stopping me changing.

will i need a new hard drive now ?

t31os · 3 Jun 2007 at 23:50

You need to boot off the CD, you can't run the installer from within windows, which is what i assume you're doing.

You cannot wipe a partition while it's in use..... :rolleyes:

Reboot the PC, enter the bios, set first boot device to CDROM (save and exit after) and hit a key when prompted by the xp disk, then follow the instructions.....

If you don't understand, pop on google and spend a little while reading one of the million guides for installing XP.

Good luck...