XP Setup cannot load the keyboard layout file

Hi All,

I'm a Mac user here in desperate need of help. I have a Jupiter Callisto DVR (http://www.jupisys.com/)....i.e. a Pentium 4 @ 1.8GHz with 256MB of RAM.

I had to replace the old hard drive with a 250GB drive. I had it installed and had XP installed on it and it was working. But I had to reformat the drive to get the DVR software to work right.

I tried to re-format the 250GB drive with a Caldera DR-DOS floppy. Well, when I reboot the XP setup program starts to run from the CD/DVD drive then after loading a bunch of stuff I keep getting this error:

"Setup cannot load the keyboard layout file KB.DUS.DLL. "

(what does that even mean?)

When I try to re-run the Caldera DR-DOS utility from flopppy it won't run completely to let me try and reformat the hard drive....anyone know whats going on?

I can't believe this. I just used the floppy last week to format then install XP. Any suggestion? Any other disk format utilites I can use?

Thanks!
Jeff

 

Arie, thanks....

It says "If you are performing a new installation, take the drive to another computer and set the appropriate permissions (Recovery Console cannot set ACLs on the ....... "

I don't have another PC to take it too (and what a hassle getting the hard drive back out...its on the bottom of where the drives mount....I cut my hand up on the sheet metal last time)

There are no utilities to just erase the drive and let me start over???

My only other option, if not, is to take the drive out and use a Mac format utility to erase and format the drive as a PC DOS volume.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

in the setup routine, you have the option to use the existing partition, or delete/create a new one. Do you get far enough to do that?
Could you use your drdos floppy to fdisk, but not partition/format the drive? (and leave it to xpsetup to do it)

 

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the reply, I'll try your suggestions....

Jeff

 

This may help:
How to manual start the removal process to remove windows xp:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=312569

If you cannot start Microsoft Windows XP in Normal mode or in Safe mode, you may have to manually remove Windows XP. You can also use the procedures that are described in this article to cancel the Windows XP Setup program if this option is not available at some point during the installation.

-----------
There still may be another way out of this but I don't have the time right now as I have a crying baby at my knees. You may want to have a look at these before you throw in the towel:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=KBDUS.DLL

 

Thanks Ann,

This is still a mess. Can't fdisk from DR DOS or stop the setup program. It gets to the point where the Setup Program says "Starting Windows" then I keep getting that error message.

I just can't believe with all the PC software out there that there is no utility that can run from a floppy or CD to just let me wipe the drive clean!!

My $3000 DVR is now useless because Windows can't load a DLL file

Very frustrated,
Jeff

 

Did you try Joe's suggestion? Should work..booting to the install cd and using the tools it has. You may have to change your boot sequence to favor the cd-rom drive first in order to get in ahead of the setup continuation.

Next thing to try - get a boot disk with diskpart on it. I have one that I got from bootdisk.com I think. I haven't used it but now sounds like a good test.

 

SF2,

Thanks, but the setup program just loads and starts running...and installing Windows. I don't know how you would stop it and bring up something else to work on the drive.

>>get a boot disk with diskpart on it<<

Where?

On the page Ann suggested, I could take the drive out and put it back in 3 times by the time I followed the instructions Microsoft outlines. This is 2004...that's the best MS can come up with?

And why won't DR DOS let me erase the drive? I never get a command prompt...just some info about a virtual disk driver...then DR DOS does nothing. All you can do it press the reset button.

No, the drive has to come back out. I have an external firewire case, I'll put in that and use Disk Utility on one of my Macs to erase and partition the drive. Then put it back in.

Lets see if that works....thanks for the help everyone...

Jeff

 

Added second source.

I got a neat bootdisk from here.. I recommend the Windows XP (Any version, Custom) since it has loads of utilities. Tip - you may need to hold down the ctrl key to get the download. The download is an image file and self extracting. Just double click it and put a blank floppy in the drive and it'll do the rest. Ignore an errors and select to try again, it's a typical bug message at times. When finished, write protect the floppy for safety. Another good source is here. My pick there is the "MS Windows XP System setup disk. "
Now, I think you should go into your BIOS setup and change it so that the floppy drive boots first, if it isn't that way now. Then use this boot floppy. I don't see how it would go into continued setup if you interupted it with a floppy boot disk. It should never see the HD under that condition so how could the setup resume?

I'm also thinking that the aefdisk on the boot floppy will work where plain vanilla fdisk won't. I've not tested that but just think it possible.

 

Update: I removed the drive and put it my external firewire case.....looks like the Oxford chip set in my case only supports drives upto 128GB, hummm....anyway, the drive did mount in OS 10.2.8 with a bunch of partitions, maybe I did something when I partitioned it with DR DOS last time? I was then able to erase the drive with Disk Utility then put it back in the DVR....then used the DR DOS floppy to partition it with two partitions again....then I was finally able to get Windows installed and working again. Thanks for the help everyone....

Jeff

 

Smooth moves Jeff. Thanks for the feedback. I was kinda hoping you'd get to use aefdisk or Delpart from one of those boot disks so I could get some experience through you. Aefdisk has a single command that "Deletes All Partitions." I though it would be just what you needed.

Nevertheless, I'm glad you got it all squared away.