Here we go,
I have a Dell Latitude D620 computer running (not running) Windows Xp Professional, cd: Service Pack 3. So I had some insane viruses take over my computer that I no longer felt like dealing with, so I wanted to just totaly wipe out my drive and reinstall windows. My neighbor had done this once before on my computer when I had blue screen errors by just using the xp boot disk by selecting the drive or something and wiping it clean. I TRIED to do it myself this time but I ended up choosing a repair install, EVEN though I never unistalled windows yet. So now when it tries to boot up (in every mode selectable) it goes to install it again. The problem is, it won't complete the install, stopping at "34 minutes left". Now I can't get to my desktop or any of that, so is there a way to wipe my hard drive and reinstall windows using my boot disk? **

** (even though when I boot from cd, it goes right to the install again?)

help!? New Problem.. I searched the forums and found what I think is the solution to my 34 minute problem (Shift-F10). But now when I boot up, it stopped attempting to install all together and goes to a back screen.

I get: Setup is being restarted. . . . . . . . .

then: the black screen shows up with my curser.

Suggestions to this one?At this point we will assume that your party have a backup of your IMPORTANT data, or else you don't care about losing any data that may be on the hard drive.
You have a good Dell laptop computer that has somehow become damaged by viruses. Or at least you have come to that conclusion. In your post you mentioned that your neighbor help you fix the machine once before.
So now we come to the question as to how old is your computer and does it possibly have any hardware problems.
But any case, at this point, the prudent thing to do would be to just start the installation over again. This time when you get into the installation, try doing something a little different. Try to completely delete the existing partition. Tried to create a smaller. The point of this exercise is to make sure you really did delete the partition and reformat it and not just tried to reuse a partition in its present condition. Yes, there is a reason for that. But just do it. Make sure the partition really has been deleted and you have created a partition a new. And it has to do a full format. No shortcuts.
And by the way, are we to assume this laptop never had a recovery partition? And is the windows XP installation disk on original from the manufacture? If not, it is possible to acquire the windows XP installation disk from Dell. Your laptop as the product key somewhere on the underside of the machine. Also, there is a serial number and a service key somewhere on the machine. If you need ADDITIONAL drivers to complete the installation you can get them off the Dell site.
Also, we assume you read the Microsoft knowledge base article completely and understand what causes the 34 minute problem.
Please come back after you try the installation all over again. Do not try to repair the botched installation.

please excuse grammar mistakes. To give you a quick answer I have used voice recognition software has my typing is even worse than my grammar.


I didn't have my computer running long enough since the blue screen errors, so I didn't have anything I felt needed to be backed up.
I'm not sure just how old the laptop is, my guestimate is about 2 or 3 years now; I acquired it refurbished with OS not installed. The cd is a legit Dell cd from what I can tell, it does however say "Reinstallation CD" if that MAKES a difference. I do not know of any specific hardware problems, but judging by the past blue screen errors it may be a possibility.

The thing is that I cannot seem to get it to reinstall.. I cannot get to this screen anymore, if that's what is required:

Every route I take seems to lead me to the "setup is being restarted...." and black screen after.

The disk also has this on it, if you didn't already identify the one that I have: "The software is already installed on your computer. Use this media only to reinstall the operating system on a Dell Pc."I believe you can get a ligit DELL disk form Amazon and others. The price is a fraction of the price of a generic XP install CD, the retail version. It ONLY works on a Dell system and is near impossible to use on another system.

The Dell INSTALL CD and the Dell RECOVERY CD are NOT the same.
If this is not clear please reply.)

If you can't find it in a Google search, or if you have more questions, please come back here.Okay, so I do not have WinXp then? My cd is this, in blue because it's sp3,


I apologize if i am no longer making any sense, this computer might go right into the 2 feet of snow on my lawn soon. Actually, problem solved. I'm sorry I took your time, but thank you very much. I must've missed something when trying to boot from disk, but it's working now and with the help of youtube I think I got it.

Thanks again, great website and I'm sure I'll be back shortly for some other problem. Glad you got it. Which video on YouTube helped you?