My computer got infected with a virus. Every time it would start up, it would shut down less than a minute later, flashing some message about some error in Windows, but it was too fast to read. Anyway, before it became completely inoperable, I was able to get enough data backed up to keep me happy, so I got ready to reformat and reinstall Windows XP.
Here’s where the the problem came: When I restarted my computer and told it to boot off the CD, for some reason, the option for installing XP was darkened out. When I tried to to type the number next to it, it jumped into a Windows installation screen, loaded all the drivers, then booted up Windows like normal, with no input from me whatsoever.
Since the reformats I’ve done in the past have been using the XP install program, I wasn’t sure how to reformat any other way. So I got a program called PartitionMagic. I found my partition, I reformatted it, deleted the partition, and created a new, fresh one (I have a feeling this is where things started to go wrong). Now, however, when I tried to install XP, it did the same thing; blanking out my choices, and starting up Windows after seemingly preparing to install beforehand. This time, however, instead of launching Windows, it gave me a blue screen message. It tells me Windows was shut down because of an error. At the end, it says “STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0x00000800, 0xF9E7D3C4, 0xF9E7D0C0)”
Since the first sentence convinced me that the computer still thought Windows was installed somehow (the supposed reformatting only took a few seconds, which didn’t seem right), I decided to nuke the entire drive with KillDisk, and try again. 40 minutes later, no dice.
Anyone have any ideas on how I can install XP? My BIOS is American MegaTrends. Thanks a lot.