HELP! - - Xpress Recovery2 --> now junk PC --> remedies?

[vaj26]

So I just built a PC. I installed everything and got everything up and running smoothly.

So I decided it was time to backup the PC using Xpress Recovery2. I partitioned the hdd and did as instructed. But when I restarted my PC and tried to backup my pc it said I didn't have enough hdd space. there was 50gigs partitioned which I believed was more than enough. But now windows won't even start up. I tried to re-install windows but it says "Windows could not retrieve information about the disks on this computer."

So right now I have a useless PC! It was working for 2 days while I made sure everything was running and installed and now I have pretty much a piece of junk.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this problem? At least how I would be able to re-install windows?

 

[Jonmor68]

It seems that Xpress Recovery2 needs unallocated partition space in order to work. I don't know anything about this software, but fro the quick look around on Google I wouldn't go anywhere near it.
However that doesn't solve your problem.
See if you can still boot off the Vista disk and use custom mode to delete any remaining partitions and create new ones.
If you can't recover the drives full capacity, we may have another problem.
If you can't get the full capacity you will need a tool to do the job, "crsetup" download from here: http://www.download25.com/install/hdd-capacity-restore.html
Once you have the drive restored to normal you shouldn't have any problems installing Windows.
Try Macrium Reflect Free Edition Drive Image for your image backup:
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
Keep in mind you can only backup the Windows partition to second partition, if your drive fails so does your backup. It's best to have a second drive to backup the complete drive in the event of drive failure.

 

[vaj26]

thanks for the suggestion.

But I can't boot from the vista cd. When I try to re-install vista I get to the install window but when I click the install it says "Windows could not retrieve information about the disks on this computer."

When I click the repair button I get nothing in the first window of the System Recovery Options...The next System Recovery Option that his the "startup repair" "System Restore" etc I get nothing....Don't know if I can use the command prompt though. Not too sure about it.

Is there anyway I can try to start over and re-install Vista or clean the hdd?

 

[Jonmor68]

Try the Live Linux CD to get at the drive, download here: http://www.knoppix.net/
I'm not into Linux but I believe the live cd is very usefull for working with problems such as yours. It runs from the actual cd.