Installing WindowsXP over existing copy??

Yes, I have every one of those installed in the link you gave above.
I did a check for updated drivers for the mouse and keyboard in device manager and the drivers are all up to date.

The Phoenix BIOS version is LTD IEX423EM

 

What is e: in your ss? CD/DVD-rom drive?

As a quick experiment would you open a command shell (runbox > cmd) and type: cd /d d:\ > enter.

Does the new cursor *before* the arrow show d:> ? Yes? Type: exit > enter. No? Type: exit > enter.

Let's switch gear's for a moment. Thunderz commented on the possibility of an underlying issue at hand. Going through numerous thread's it sound's like the majority of emachine owner's express serious gripe's about hardware, claiming cheap stuff (sold as a 'budget' machine which I'm sure you're aware of). That would include their supposed *iffy* psu's or, power supplies, and a key item that has been known to make, or break, many a boot. Unless handy with a multimeter, not something your easily going to determine on your own. *Mind you speculation on my part. Could be connect's?

Do you notice any big heat around the tower after the system's been up for a while, heat that might lead you to place a fan directly on it? Are you friendly with a local shop where they not only know what they're doing but also won't charge an arm and a leg for taking a look?


S

 

No, E: is something else, I put a picture of the drives here, and also a pic of what you said to type, let me know if I did it rite.
I agree with the cheap budget statements though because there is another computer here, not an emachine, and for 5 years has never had any problems like this before, and I know other people who dont have these kind of problems.
Unfortunatley I don't know anyone who I could even trust to look at this for me unless I take it to a local shop and pay no tellin how much.
I do not notice any extreme heat coming from the computer, the CPU fan, or at least I think that's what it's called, was took off and cleaned and then replaced the last time I "dusted" the inside of the computer, not the exaust fan on the back of the computer but the one on the inside, and it's working fine. (if that has anything to do with the heat anyway

 

My puter show's what I wanted. Your input show's .... NOT familiar with a prompt - cd[space]/d[space]d:\
I've got the pdf, and popcorn. Tommorrow's on it's way.

S

 

lol
I had to put a DVD into the D drive to make it work because the same message kept popping up. Maby I did it rite this time??. lemme know when you get back.

 

Hi Sonya.
I remember the emachine, the e stands for EEK. That was my first comp. It had frequent hardware freezing and rebooting. Finally, right after the 1 year waranty was over, it self terminated and the powersupply burnt everything.

In my experience, it looks like the cheapest way to go on your situation is to buy some DVD's at your local store. You should be able to buy a 50 pack for $12 or $15. After this, you could buy the 3 pack Acronis software suite for $80, or you could search around for some freeware that will do the same type of jobs. Because I've not experimented with imaging or disk partitioning freeware, I will leave it to other members to show you where to start. But again, a total of about $100 is not bad for a safe backup system. By using DVDs, you wouldn't have to buy a new hard drive - which offers easier backups.

If you follow the former route, then I've included some pretty easy to follow directions with the screenshots. Flow these steps:

1. Use the DVD burner and burn your documents, favorites, pictures of your toes, etc... to some DVD.
2. If your system is working fine, skip to step 3. If it is freezing all the time or is problematic, go ahead and wipe it out by using the emachine restore discs.
3. Once you've got a good clean system, do windows updates, install your security softwares, tweak your windows to whatever you are used to, install your programs and use them for a couple hours to get the settings you always have on them, scan your system for bugs, etc...
4. When the above is done, install DiskDirector and create a partition. ( It looks like you have 80GB, I dare say your system wouldn't take much more than 20 GB, if you're a mad gamer - maybe 40GB?) So... create a partition of size 60GB. This will leave you with a 20GB System partition and a 60GB DATA partition. ( You can just go to MyComputer and right click on a drive to rename it, I'm sure you know this)
4.5 Rightclick on your "MyDocuments" folder and redirect it to the DATA drive. Then put in the DVD you created earlier and drag all those files back into the DATA drive. Then restore your book marks and any other application data.

5. When thats done, install Acronis True Image.

6. Now, use TrueImage to create a backup image of your System Partition ( the C drive). When you're in the process of creating that image, direct the image to be saved on the DATA drive. Make sure:
a) you use ATI to check the validity of the image when the image has been created. If the image validates successfully, you SHOULD be able to restore the system if the system crashes. AND
b) the image is saved in chunks of 4GB, this is to enable you to burn that data to the DVDs. ( To do this: tools>options>default backup options>image splitting)

7. Use ATI to burn a Rescue disk. In fact, burn 2 or 3 of them. Use whatever burning software you have to burn the image files to DVDs. (Tool>Create Bootable rescue media)


Thats the basic version of it.

The following steps are optional, but recommended.
8. Go to ATI and restore the image. Please be careful to restore only to the System Partition.
If the system restores, go to step 9 and know that if you continue to use the system from this point on and it freezes or you do something to it to cause a change you don't like, you can repeat step 8 and you will be back to this point. If it doesn't restore, you gotta curse me out, get a beer, and start over.


9. If the system restores from Windows, use the rescue disk to restore the image again. If it restores at this point, you know that if your Windows crashes, you will still be ok.

10. This last step should be excercised with care. Simply put, just understand that at this point, your system is pretty solid, but you will eventually want to add software or make changes to the system. If you do, write those changes down so that you can retrace your steps and perform those changes the next time you have to restore the image. If there are lots of changes, be sure to back up again.

 

eniqmah , thank you for taking the time to explain that. I will read it throughly tonight and tomorrow and will give it a go probably over the weekend. I am sure that I will have questions though
Thanks again for your help!
Sonya