E-Machine Restore Disc Failure

I just helped a friend run the restore CDs on a 3 year old E-Machine. (He didn't have any significant data or programs he wanted to save.) We got to the end of the second (final) restore disc and got a message "Ghosterr.txt ". Then a second dialogue box indicated App Error 437. After we clicked OK, we removed the final CD as directed and hit "Enter" to restart Windows and the screen went black and all we could get was a blinking cursor in the upper left. I put the restore CDs through a second time with the same results. If I press CTL-ALT-DEL, it acts like it is going through the boot up process (A drive lights up) and then just a flashing cursor again. Any suggestions?

 

Bad recovery discs

Have you made sure that the discs were clean when you tried the recovery ? If so, it would certainlyseem like E-Machines gave you corrupted recovery discs. Try calling their tech support and complain and demand new discs. Be sure to have your exact model number to give to them.

Better yet, see is you can purchase a full Windows XP Home install disc for a nominal fee (~$15).

 

Thanks for the response WinCrazy. I have contacted e-machines and am waiting for their response regarding replacing/downloading the restore disks. In the interim, I was curious about how you obtain the Win XP install disks for $15. I checked on the Microsoft site but couldn't locate any usable information.

Since the machine appears to be going through the boot process (A drive search), then EMachines splash screen, and then black screen with flashing cursor, would it be possible to create a boot floppy to start the process?

 

From Symantec's site:

Error: "Ghost Error Application error 437..." when restoring an image or running the Integrity Check

Alternate causes and solutions

This problem can also happen when you use a brand or type of CD that does not work well with your CD-R or CD-RW device. In this situation, Windows or DOS might be able to read information on the CD that other applications cannot. For information on this and other troubleshooting methods, see the document How to troubleshoot problems writing to CD-R and CD-RW drives.
This problem can also happen when you use Ghost compression. To solve the problem, use a different compression rate or no compression.



Take that 3rd CD to another computer with a burner and make a copy of it. Hope it works.

What WinCrazy is suggesting is that emachine will sell you a genuine XP CD to do a fresh install for a nominal fee. I doubt they would do that...

 

I got a new set of recovery disks from eMachines and the installation went fine. So, it appears the problem was with the original recovery disks. I have AVG installed and current. Will probably put Zone Alarm on shortly. My new or follow on question relates to SP2 and subsequent updates. I have the SP2 disk that Microsoft provided several months ago. Can I simply install that and then go to the Microsoft site to pick up the updates that have been issued since the SP2 to bring the machine up to date? I know there is some procedure called slipstreaming but what I have seen of that seems a bit complicated/cumbersome for me. Thanks for any input.

 

That should do it for this Thread. Thanks to all for your responses. If I run into any problems with the SP2 and update, I will start a new Thread.