Boot failure: System halted

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Oh. You can't open an EXE for Windows in Ubuntu. That's why you're getting odd error message.
You could open it in WINE ... but that's not gonna help you. The recovery CD will need to be run @ boot otherwise nothing is gonna happen. Makes you wonder why it doesn't work in the first place though....

Now that you have Ubuntu, if you install Windows then you'll end up losing Ubuntu (Windows is picky about being first on the drive). Just to be careful.
 
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swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
Thanks for that. TBH, I wouldn't mind losing Ubuntu if I could get a good stable copy of XP running. It is odd that it won't run. It's odd that the installed copy of XP won't run. Is there any way I can get that CD to run from BIOS - can I get a dos prompt then type in run windows xp.exe or something? I would like to install from that disc if I can - if nothing else, it was supplied with the right drivers for all the pc hardware pre-installed.
 
If you managed to install Ubuntu from an Ubuntu Boot disk then the drive 'should' also work with an XP boot disk and allow you to install XP from that...unless the XP boot disk is damaged. Polishing it with a clean cloth might help, or try another XP disk if you can.
 
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swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
Unfortunately it won't. I really don't think it's a physical problem with the cd itself - I've tried two now, with the same (non) results. And since I installed ubuntu, I can't get back to the BIOS. The manual says to hit F12 when the Dell logo appears, but that does nothing...it just carries on until it gets to a Dos-type Ubuntu screen 'Grub Gnu' or something, that supposdely lets me choose whether to boot up into ubuntu or windows, tho when I try going down to select Windows, I just end up with a cursor blink blink blinking in the top left corner of a black screen, and that's that.
 
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swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
I was thinking of stopping throwing good time after bad: just reformat the HD then reload Windows. What could go wrong, eh?

Unfortunately, googling how tos, they all stress that you have to start by booting from CD and having windows run from the cd. Which I can't do. Is it possible to reformat the C drive completely, then start from there? I seem to recall I did that once, and it worked, tho' it turned out to be more hassle than it needed to be, because I found out later I should have done format C:/p or something, rather than just reformat C:

Does any of that make sense?

If I did reformat, could I then use BIOS to tell the thing to boot from the CD, then load the windows instal disc and reboot...would that work?
 
For the hard disk preperation (formatting etc.) it is normal to use the installation cddvd of the operating system that you are installing.

Can I clarify something - you can boot from the ubuntu cd, but not the XP one?
If so, then I would suggest that either the XP disk is on its way out, or the CDDVD drive is.
 
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swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
2Loose said:
For the hard disk preperation (formatting etc.) it is normal to use the installation cddvd of the operating system that you are installing. Yup. That seems to be the case.

Can I clarify something - you can boot from the ubuntu cd, but not the XP one? Yup.
If so, then I would suggest that either the XP disk is on its way out, or the CDDVD drive is. It seems odd, for sure. But the drive seems ok - it works with the ubuntu disk, no problem. And I've tried two different Windows disks, both brand new. It would seem odd if both were faulty. I don't begin to understand it...
.
 
*wild guesses begin*

I'm rusty on this but perhaps there is a windows install on the drive (well, Ubuntu thinks there is!) but it's broken somehow. Perhaps the Windows boot disc sees this and tries to boot into the Windows install, and then it hangs because the installation is flaky.

If you are brave you can format c: from Ubuntu. (although, of course, that's not the terminology to use). Although as mentioned, that might lose you both Ubuntu and windows.
 

S_t_e_v_e

Veteran
Location
Derbyshire
[quote name='swee'pea99']
Like I said, I got it off ebay, and I thought XP was on it, tho' I wasn't sure. [/QUOTE]


Has this computer ever booted into Windows?

Just a thought - some recovery CD's may not have any installation files on it for windows, or even a "recovery image" and may be used just to boot a hidden partition to recover the system... but that may not be on the hard disk any longer......

if you have no files on the hard drive you require, then may be a format and a new windows installation should be done from a proper windows installation disk (bootable CD/DVD).
 
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swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Squire
You'll never believe it. It works! Everything's installed and up 'n running. I was trying to get into BIOS by whacking away at the del key before it went straight to the GRUB screen, and suddenly, to my amazement, it actually worked, and took me to the 'hit any key to boot from CD'. I'd been there before, and 'hit any key' many times without anything happening, but on this occasion, it actually worked, and started booting from the XP restore CD I happened to have in the drive. And that was that. I still have a redundant instal of Ubuntu on the HD, but I've plenty of spare room, so I'm not that worried.

Many thanks for all your help.
 
Great. I actually managed to operate on my computer when it broke down and got it working now.It's at least 7 years old.I found a writeup on the intranet somewhere.Dec 2003 I think.
 

CopperBrompton

Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
Location
London
Now you've got it working, get rid of the Maxtor drive and replace it with anything else at all before the inevitable drive failure.
 

george at highbike

New Member
Location
Inverness
Hi there, A lot of the help offered as been well intentioned by widely off the mark. sadly the fault your decribing is pre-BIOS is it is not your BIOS is almost certainly a hardware fault on your motherboard, remove all memory modules and reboot. if no luck take it to some one such as myself a professional computer engineer but it might be cheaper fitting a new motherboard.
sorry to be a bit down
 
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