I ran into a situation today where I haven't experienced before and thus kinda got stuck. I was attempting to format/reinstall fresh winxp onto a friend's pc. the blue screen for the boot disc loads and a few files are loaded up. well, after that section I am used to seeing the MS agreement page where you press F8 to agree.

instead of reaching the agreement page and the format/partition/installation sections, it loads up a black screen titled MS Windows XP Recovery Console. It leaves me with command prompt and I didn't know what to do next.

I tried to run setup.exe off the disc from command prompt but the command wasn't allowed. what is causing this screen to load up instead of continuing the blue screens of the boot disc?

10/10/2006 6:23:38 PM

Is it an HP?

HP has this new Windows Recovery System...not sure how it works and I have never had to use it but thats what it sounds like is happening.

That being said, try to recover the system by using the recovry console and not the disk if it is an HP. As long as nothing is wrong with the HD you should be able to restore the system to factory settings with no disk.

[Edited on October 10, 2006 at 7:32 PM. Reason : .]

10/10/2006 7:26:57 PM

It is not an HP nor some mainstream factory PC. However, he said the PC was purchased from a small online custom-build vendor back a few years ago.

I am using a MS Windows XP Pro cd...not some pre-packaged recovery disc. And I don't know what to do on that recovery screen as all I get is a command prompt that hasn't allowed me to do much.

10/10/2006 8:27:33 PM

?

10/14/2006 4:37:33 PM

Throw linux on it first. Just for formatting purposes really. Then do a full XP install. This has solved some of the strangest issues I've ever run across.

10/14/2006 5:17:11 PM

try typing in R for recovery, then press enter.

I had a similar problem.

[Edited on October 15, 2006 at 2:44 PM. Reason : .]

10/15/2006 2:31:26 PM

Quote :

"It leaves me with command prompt and I didn't know what to do next."

What OS did you use to create the boot disk?

10/15/2006 4:50:24 PM

i didn't create the boot disc from any OS...this is a full copy of winxp pro that i am trying to boot/install from

10/17/2006 11:16:11 AM

i swapped out the HDD to see if that was the issue. i still ran into the same screen and i am stumped.

now i am wondering if the BIOS has any affect on this issue. if not, a bad cdrom? i just wish i could figure out why i am arriving at this recovery screen versus the normal winxp partition/format/install screens.

10/27/2006 12:06:16 AM

You tested the CD in another system yet? Need to determine if it's the CD or the system first.

10/27/2006 9:28:07 AM

^yep try a different copy

10/27/2006 10:33:08 AM

good idea

although this has been the same disc i have used for my personal computer as well as many others in the past. that's why i am so stumped b/c i have never ran into this issue before.

10/27/2006 8:56:07 PM