[Bad Memory]I just screwed my computer trying to install....

[God Emperor Charles]

Friends,

"The Ultimate CRPG Archives" collection. I just tried to Install Wasteland from it. My system is WinXP, 32 bit (I guess) and I had a dosbox open. I switched to E: drive and saw DOSSETUP.EXE. Having forgotten that that is the executable to CREATE A DOS DISC I typed it in. I now cannot get my machine to boot in windows. I get a DOS BOOT FAILURE warning and PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM DISC. Anybody old school enough around here to figure out what's what? I'm thinking maybe I re-partitioned my hard drive. Any takers?

CKB

[Snake Vargas]

I'm afraid I can't help you but just so you know The Ultimate CRPG archives runs on win95. I got it as well & will probably be shopping for a very old laptop on ebay.

Sorry I'm not being very helpful. Perhaps your best chance is reformating. I suck at PC maintenance though. Maybe go to a more dedicated forum.

[Sxerks]

get you XP disc and boot from it, install windows, choose the drive, and then it might ask you to repair the installation, do that.

[God Emperor Charles]

Sxerks(?),

That's occurred to me a while ago. If that doesn't work I don't know what will.

Thanks,

CKB

[Proton Axeman]

http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php/3975-Fix-the-MBR-in-Windows-XP

My suspicion is that the EXE overwrote the MBR with the boot loader associated with DOS. That's more likely than it wiping out the partition table, anyway.

If you don't *have* a Windows XP install disk anymore, you might have to get bootable media from somewhere else and a copy of the MBR from another box running XP, but ugh.

[God Emperor Charles]

Proton Axeman,

Thanks for that link, I'll try it. For the record, I turned the computer off, got some sleep and came back to it. I turned it on and it booted fine. I tried to install Wasteland again via a different route and the machine seized up. I hit the re-set switch and... same problem. I played with it and eventually got it to work again, then I did a re-start just to make sure it would boot without help and... same problem. It refuses to boot. I will use your FIXMBR suggestion (I will use the link to make sure I do it right), and I think that will probably work. Nothing else did. I'll let you know.

CKB

[God Emperor Charles]

Friends,

Well that didn't fucking work. I think because the machine has SATA drives, not IDE, and it will only work with IDE. I wonder if I could get it to work by taking the HD out, putting it in my Win7 machine and using the Win7 setup disc to fix it. NO!!! Not going to try it. I may just take it in to a computer shop and see if they can straighten the bitch out.

[Sxerks]

Did you try the xp install disc, did it show that there was a windows partition or folder already on the drive?

You can still install windows over the old copy of windows, you might have to reinstall your programs but all your data will still be there.

or will the xp disc not work because it needs sata drivers?

[God Emperor Charles]

Did you try the xp install disc, did it show that there was a windows partition or folder already on the drive?

You can still install windows over the old copy of windows, you might have to reinstall your programs but all your data will still be there.

or will the xp disc not work because it needs sata drivers?

Sxerls.

Yes, It was the WinXP install disc I used. And it did find the c:/Windows directory. But when I used the FIXDIR command, NOTHING happened. I didn't get the chance to say yes or no to the next question, because it just didn't come up. I am also thinking my HD might actually be deceased at this time because it can't even be found by the bios. The DATA drive (an exact duplicate) is found immediately, but the boot drive is not.

CKB

[Sxerks]

ah, so you choose "repair" and it brought you to the command prompt. You should do "install" instead, the repair you want to do isn't the 1st option they give you, it's later on as part of a install.

[God Emperor Charles]

ah, so you choose "repair" and it brought you to the command prompt. You should do "install" instead, the repair you want to do isn't the 1st option they give you, it's later on as part of a install.

Sxerks,

Wait a second... so you are saying that I boot from the WinXP CD, and when it asks me if I want to do an install, or a repair, I should choose "Install", and then it will detect the existing install and ask if I want to repair it? Am I understanding this correctly?

THANKS,

CKB

[Sxerks]

Wait a second... so you are saying that I boot from the WinXP CD, and when it asks me if I want to do an install, or a repair, I should choose "Install", and then it will detect the existing install and ask if I want to repair it? Am I understanding this correctly?
THANKS, CKB

yep, during an actual install, if you are installing to the same drive it should give the option to repair the installation.

[God Emperor Charles]

Friends,

Believe it or not, it wasn't anything I did that was causing the problem. Turns out I had a FAN that was out of tune, so it was setting up a vibration which caused a drive cable to come loose from the motherboard. It just HAPPENED at the right moment to make me think it was the result of trying to install the game.
Anyway I downloaded the latest version of DOSBOX and put it on my primary machine instead. I have gotten WASTELAND to work, complete with sound. But I tell you, the version from the URPGA does NOT play like the floppy boxed version from 10 years earlier. With the original version, I had no problem getting my characters BRAWLING and other HTH combat skills to go up. This version it's more like work to get their skills to raise. The easiest skill to raise so far (in other words, NO EFFORT needed), was PERCEPTION, by running back and forth along the skylight on the roof of the courthouse in Quartz. Everyone is at 3 perception now.
One problem I've encountered is that the game (dosbox itself?) will lock up on occasion. I notice this usually involves the mouse, which might mean that lock ups can be avoided by avoiding the mouse and just using the keys. That's the way I played it originally, I can probably do it again.

Later, CKB

[Dragoon]

Lol, what are the chances? People call me crazy when I talk about synchronicity events.