[elbowgrease11]

I have a Dell 4500S with XP. When I turn on my computer it goes into the Windows Logo and then goes to a black screen with white bars at the bottom. Only a couple of the bars go white as it tries to boot. Then the message "Windows could not start because the following file is missing
windows/system/vgaoem.fon
Then it tells me I can repair it by pressing 'r' at the first screen, so I do this and then it just goes back to the beginning with the windows log and then the black screen.

I tried putting in my XP operating disk to re-install it, and it sounds like the drive is working, but nothing comes up onscreen to re-install. Appreciation any help I can get.

Thanks

[Elvandil]

Do you have an XP Cd to boot with for the Recovery Console?

Is that file on your CD?

[elbowgrease11]

Yes, I do but even though it sounds like it is booting, the screen just goes back to the Microsoft Logo and then the black screen again.

[Rich-M]

Go here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315338

[Elvandil]

If you can boot from your CD, then enter the Recovery Console ("R" on the first page) and expand the file.

If you only have a recovery CD and can't get into the Recovery Console, you'll need a different method. Do you have a floppy drive?

[elbowgrease11]

Yes I do have a floppy drive, but I don't think that it works, I don't recall it working before for some reason I must have tried it.

[elbowgrease11]

Thank you Elvandil for the link. I looked at it and it says to go to the console, but I can't get there before it goes back to the beginning of the boot.

[Elvandil]

You may still be able to boot from a CD (or floppy) to test memory.

Try disconnecting everything you don't need to boot.

MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)
Memtest86

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista and can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.

[elbowgrease11]

When the cd drive is trying to boot it comes up with this error message now: Diskette Drive 0 Seek Failure

What is that?

Thanks

[elbowgrease11]

I am so aggravated with this, can I clean all the info off my hard drive and reinstall everything. I have all my disks, but am unsure of what to do to get everything off it and start new. Does anyone know how to do this?

[elbowgrease11]

Thanks to a sticky, I have gone through most of the Setup to reinstall windows xp, however now it tells me Setup cannot creaate the folder:\windows\inf, setup cnnot continue until the folder is created.
to retry, press enter to quit setup press f3.
Well of course I want to retry but nothing happens. I don't want to stop the process, does anyone know what I should do?

[Elvandil]

There's not much you can do but stop. It's possible that setup can't write to the drive if that folder can't be created. The hard drive may have problems.

Free Hard Drive Testing Applications:
Manufacturer's Tests
HD Tune
CheckDisk 1.03 (Marks bad sectors as unusable.)
HDAT2 (Diagnostics and bad sector recovery)
MHDD Low-level Diagnostics
Bootable Hitachi Drive Fitness Test Floppy or CD Image (works on most drives)

Hard Drive Manufacturers' Diagnostic Utilities Links:
TachTech
BleepingComputer

[Aitrusskyy]

I would say he needs perhaps a tool that can ensure the MBR is wiped clean. Then he can try installing windows and it shouldn't give him those errors.

Usually if windows wont install after formatting it is because some bits are left over that shouldn't be (this is also why after a fresh windows install sometimes you boot and see an option to boot to 2 installations of windows when there is only 1 installed. Erasing the MBR will ensure this is not the case.

I use this tool
http://www.download.com/Partition-Ta...dlPid=10821027

Download it, install it, run the program and make a bootable CD.

Boot from that cd, then under operations choose "Erase Master Boot Record" then click YES to are you sure, then click FILE and SAVE... then it will exit making the changes, just boot to your xp cd and try once again to install.

[Elvandil]

A Dell MBR is proprietary and contains the code that activates the recovery process. It cannot be replaced by a normal MBR and cannot be recovered once lost (by non-heroic means). Do not erase your MBR unless you are sure that you can do a complete recovery, including repartitioning, with your recovery CD's.

[Aitrusskyy]

If im not mistaken I think dell does not include a recovery partition. At least mine never have. They always include the re-install cd.