HP Pavilion Laptop I386 folder Windows XP installation

[purplecatty]

I just received HP laptop from friend's brother. He screwed his laptop with virus. He asked me to repair his laptop. At first initial examination on his laptop. he installed Antivirus and Spyware remover AFTER his lappy was infected. Scanner says it have 2,300 something viruses and several trojans ect :jaw: . I asked her how did her brother crapped his laptop. She said he handed it over to his friend for while and after that that's what he got. Not very nice of his friends. I asked if he have a Restoration CD or Original XP cdrom came with laptop. She said he bought it cheap "as is" laptop (nice but dirty HP Pavilion DV4308wm, I'm jealous cuz I ran Ubuntu Hardy Live cd and it's 100% compatible and wifi card happily detected and listed wireless routers!!). So I had to "mosey" around to extract I386 folder from C:\ drive. (Not in C:\Windows\.. file). Cuz virus and trojans took out necessary part of XP's desktop(no Programs from Start menu, My Computer all consist users folders, ect). I use IE browser to access C:\ drive to rescue that folder and placed on Desktop otherwise Nero won't be able to "see" the file from C:\ drive, only see Desktop and name the few..

Then I had to download Ultimate Bootable CD and BartPE, create/merge XP from my XP CD and burn ISO file to CDrom on basment system. Then Booted it to BartPE desktop. I finally ran installation file from I386 folder's "Winnt32.exe". Provided Laptop's original XP Key, set C:\I386 path for installation. Then after it installed installation file then close window itself. I rebooted and got into XP Setup and installed XP no problem.

The real problem is that I can't reformat the hdd cuz it refuse to reformat due to I386 folder in infected drive. It didn't provide me to creat new partition either. So I decide to log in clean installed XP and installed Nero burningrom and extracted I386 from infected "user" file cuz it is shared with same infected drive. I burned it to CD and then downloaded and installed BartPE. I ADDED , NOT MERGE the I386 folder into BartPE and burned it to CD.

Booted up and scrubbed drive with Boot and Nuke. Then partitioned and reformatted it to FAT32. Then on BartPE, I copy I386 folder from BartPE disk and pasted it to scrubbed cleaned C:\ drive. After that I ran installation like I did above. After removing BartPE cd. Booted up and It show NO "XP Setup" or "Microsoft Windows XP Home" flash screen!!

Just the blinking cursor on blank black screen.


I did succeed on other installation method but asking for MS Windows XP sp2 CD. It won't use I386 folder. I knew one of file that I culd configure path to I386 but culdnt find it.

I went back on BartPE to see what I did wrong. on C:\ folder, It show I386 folder, $NTLTR$ file and couple of folders that installer already setup. The hdd partitation already activated and set to boot on C:\ drive.

SO I'm at the dead end how to install it from I386 folder!! I did Google Search and did follow their instruction and none working! I might have missing something on installation file. Vendor might have taken out neccessary I386 file in folder. Her brother can't afford to buy HP Resoration cd tho. I don't want to use my XP cd to install.

Don't ask me why I had to rescue I386 folder. It's because it's the original XP SP2 with Laptop's XP serial key for legal use purpose!! I did the same to my Acer laptop too just in case.

I only have 1/2 baked installation now.

Suggestion Anyone!!!

Catty

 

[TechBill]

There should been a sticker with XP serial number on the laptop that if you can borrow or find any HP OEM XP disc or HP XP recovery cd disc and it should work with that serial number.

Or go online and order a HP recovery disc and last time I got a that it was free but there a 15 dollar flat fee for processing and shipping it to you and I think really worth it.

I recently repaired a HP computer that the recovery partition was trashed so I told the client it would be a wise investment to order the recovery CD from HP since her a Vista and I don't have OEM Vista laying around to use to recover. And it made recoverying her desktop easier.

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[purplecatty]

There should been a sticker with XP serial number on the laptop that if you can borrow or find any HP OEM XP disc or HP XP recovery cd disc and it should work with that serial number.

Or go online and order a HP recovery disc and last time I got a that it was free but there a 15 dollar flat fee for processing and shipping it to you and I think really worth it.

I recently repaired a HP computer that the recovery partition was trashed so I told the client it would be a wise investment to order the recovery CD from HP since her a Vista and I don't have OEM Vista laying around to use to recover. And it made recoverying her desktop easier.

.

Yes, I did use serial key from under HP laptop. I could ask her brother if he would chip in $15 for Recovery cd so that He can fix it himself (learning from my friend who complained that her brother does something that she don't like and he screwed up her old pc that she loaned to him. I told her that he would need to use Linux instead of Windows LOL.)

Funny thing, I did experiment using my Acer Aspire laptop's Recovery cd to HP laptop. I was thinking that It would extract I386 folder from drive and install from there but it turned out that it uses it's own Acer's I386 file to install from DVD. HP laptop did boot up to Windows login and I tried to log in and it asked for serial number. I put in from MY Acer serial key for fun of it. It won't take it, Not even HP serial key. It requires calling Microsoft Customer svc for code or log in Microsoft to register. I didn't bother either one of them. Just for fun of it.. Funny thing is that HP laptop with Acer screen lol.

I planned to look deeper through Google with different wordings. Yes I will check with HP site for recovery cd.

Catty