XP Pro Won't Load

FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
edited May 2004 in Science & Tech
:banghead: OK, here goes, for give the length....

Brother-in law (jerk) has me build computer. Installed XP with 2 GB swap file as "C" drive and put XP on "D" partition. All is well for months and months.

Jerk calls says computer won't boot. Missing or corrupt file of some kind. I say do a repair install and all will be fine. Unbeknownst to me, he hasn't defragged this box for about 6 months, loaded a program of some kind onto the "C" drive, and when he went to do a repair install, even though I made him write down exactly what to do, he did a RE-INSTALL onto the "C" partition. Didn't format, just re-install. He effectively wiped out the boot.ini, and any other boot files and now can't access the "D" partition at all.

I now have the box in my possession and am wondering what to do next. I can't yank the disk out and put it on another machine as it's hung off an Ultra 100 Promise controller and no matter what I try, I can't get my NF7S to boot with the Promise controller in it. If I hook up the drive without the controller, I still get a hang after the XP logo screen. When on the Promise controller in the original box and in the recovery console, I can fixboot and fixmbr, but when I try to bootcfg to rewrite the boot.ini, it fails and says the filesystem is too corrupt.

Is there anyway to reformat this partition from within the recovery console and then rewrite the needed files to allow this damn thing to boot?

In response to the un- but soon to be asked question of why don't I just do a repair install, because the files on "C" have been corrupted, it doesn't see the windows install to attempt to repair it. It only offers to install into the "empty" partition.

HELP

Thanks,
Flint

Comments

  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited May 2004
    Can you just start over all together or are you trying to save the D:/OS?

    Is it NTFS?

    AFAIK there is no way to reformat the C: from with in the recovery console and I'm not sure that that would fix it...

    I would definately move it to a regular IDE until you can get it to boot, as long as you have it set up in the BIOS to be able to boot in the proper sequence it should work. I would temporarly turn off booting to other or SCSI or what ever setting in the BIOS that is set which allows the system to recognize booting off the promise card...

    I might even remove the promise card from the system till I got it figured out... Just disconnect a CDrom drive or something is my suggestion...

    Doing that will keep the system from a prolonged boot peroid looking for the boot from the empty card.

    Then I would try running a CHKDSK if you can. I think you can get that from the tools dir on the XP disk if I remember right... Also as I'm sure your awahare, if you hit F8 right after the BIOS posts and before it launches windows that will bring up the ability to try and load into safe mode...
    Probably already tried getting into safe mode though huh?

    If you end up redoing the rig I might suggest not seperating the swap file for XP.
    There is a lot of data that supports that XP preforms better while residing on the same partition as the OS... reliable sources have suggested seperation actualy hinders performance in XP.

    Also the other thing that I noticed is that no matter how much I tried, XP just plain wants to be on the C drive... sure you can load the OS on a different partition but as long as there are more than one partitions XP will always call one C and the other one whatever and it will put files that are needed for XP to boot and run properly on the c drive...

    I know, I tried a ton of diffrent things and no matter what I did XP still insisted on installing certian files on the C: drive... Eventually I just gave up and let XP do its thing... Worked great since...

    "g"
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited May 2004
    Thanks for the reply. I'm trying to do him a favor and retreive his data from the old "D" partition but I can't even access the drive's contents when either putting the bare drive or the controller and drive into another box. So I'm stumped. I've pulled both the card and drive from the box, and am loading the OS onto a spare drive I had laying around but I still think there should be a way to replace the damaged files on the "C" partition so as to make it bootable.

    Anyone else want to chime in, it would be appreciated, even if it means that I'm S.O.L.

    Thanks,
    Flint
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    I would try hooking it up in another box but not boot from it. Boot to your O/S instead and try to merge the C: and D: partitions w/ Partitionmagic to just a C: partition. Then put it back in his box and run CHKDSK /r. After that you should be able to do a repair install.
  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited May 2004
    mtgoat wrote:
    I would try hooking it up in another box but not boot from it. Boot to your O/S instead and try to merge the C: and D: partitions w/ Partitionmagic to just a C: partition. Then put it back in his box and run CHKDSK /r. After that you should be able to do a repair install.


    I agree, that sounds like a great idea...

    "g"
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited May 2004
    Sorry, I've been gone as my dad's in the hospital.

    But back to this problem, I've tried to put it in another box either with the Promise controller card or without. In either case, the box will hang just past the XP logo screen. Goes black and sits there doing nothing. That's why I ask about reformatting from w/in the recovery console as the only box I can do anything on is the one it came from! Really frustrating!

    How about doing a "fresh install", and formatting "C" and stopping after the format. Can I then put the required boot files back on "C" from somewhere else?

    Thanks,

    Flint
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    Something else you could try to do is image in DOS (via Ghost) the affected partition(s). Image both to spare partitions on an extra hard drive in a properly running computer. Then you have an image to manipulate until you finally figure it out.
    I'm trying to do him a favor and retreive his data from the old "D" partition but I can't even
    Well, if he really is a "jerk", when you finally return the computer, say in a clear voice where his family can hear, "Sorry Joe, but I couldn't retrieve your hot male action video collection. I did though, get back most of the fuzzy farm animal series."
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited May 2004
    ROTFLMAO!!!!!

    Thanks, I needed that!!

    Flint
Sign In or Register to comment.