Windows XP pro and media center

I have a problem with a laptop with two versions of windows xp pro and media center but i have only one logical drive and a restore drive. could the restore drive have a bootable operating system? this is a PC someone gave me bc they got the blue screen of death (memory dump). Also the hard drive has only one windows folder and i wasnt able to open the restore partition. could they have installed another version of windows over the recovery partition and its still reading like the recovery partition? it doesn't prompt me to press any function button to try to restore. It is a gateway PC. I just need to know how to delete one of the windows versions. Any ideas would be a great. thanks.

 

Hi snailman101,

First we need the manufacturer's model number. The BSOD doesn't mean anything unless there's a Stop Error message; memory dump covers a multitude of sins.

Go to Gateway's website: http://support.gateway.com/support/default.aspx
http://support.gateway.com/s/SOFTWARE/Medialess/FAQ/SUPPAGE01su44.shtml

and see where to obtain directions to restore the drive. If the previous owner installed anything over the recovery files, it might be toast.

 

hey the model number is w340ui

 

Yeah they installed Windows over the recovery partition so i ghosted the active partition and reformated the hard drive nothing else i do. thanks

 

Hi snailman101,

Thanks for the post-back.

Also, whom ever you know that isn't computer literate, please make them come here first before they do anything; just send everyone on your e-mail list a link to this site. There may be other forums, but this one's the best.

 

I've recieved more info on this problem. The problem is that the CPU is overheating and causes windows to shutdown stop erroe code is:
0x0000008E (0x80000003,0xba5605D2,0xB231F9D4,000000)