Laptop Drama...
Okay, first off - I'M A FRIGGIN IDIOT.
Having said that, here is the scenario.
Laptop, NO CD-Rom (extra battery replaced the cd-rom after it broke), USB Floppy Drive.
In my infinite wisdom I used Partition Magic 8 to change around the partitions in an effort to do a fresh Windows XP install.
I was able to install on the newly made partition using an external USB CD-Rom drive, I deleted the old partition... then my brain decided it wanted to shut down.
I didn't set the new partition to active.
I reboot and s'prise s'prise - NO OS FOUND.
No, I didn't make PM recovery diskettes.
I tried making them after the fact and it'll let me SEE the partition but I can't do anything to it.
No, I can't boot from external device so reinstalling from the external USB CD-Rom drive doesn't work.
Help?
I'll be the one banging my head against the wall in the corner.
Having said that, here is the scenario.
Laptop, NO CD-Rom (extra battery replaced the cd-rom after it broke), USB Floppy Drive.
In my infinite wisdom I used Partition Magic 8 to change around the partitions in an effort to do a fresh Windows XP install.
I was able to install on the newly made partition using an external USB CD-Rom drive, I deleted the old partition... then my brain decided it wanted to shut down.
I didn't set the new partition to active.
I reboot and s'prise s'prise - NO OS FOUND.
No, I didn't make PM recovery diskettes.
I tried making them after the fact and it'll let me SEE the partition but I can't do anything to it.
No, I can't boot from external device so reinstalling from the external USB CD-Rom drive doesn't work.
Help?
I'll be the one banging my head against the wall in the corner.
0
Comments
Make sure you got four floppy disks lying around as it takes four disks..
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
Nice to see the dancing spidey back!
I tried the XP floppy bootdisk solution and it's a no-go.
Y'see, the old partition isn't truly deleted, the new partition isn't active and there isn't enough room to install (per the error) message.
I tried fdisk'ing the partitions away but still a no-go because they were created with a 3rd party utility.
Thanks, Spidey is happy to be back.
No, run PM 8.0 again (from a PM rescue floppy set boot), set the first partition active. Boot from CD, go into the recovery console, and tell it
this sequence:
FIXBOOT /SCAN
FIXMBR
FIXBOOT C:
NOW, try booting.
If that does not work, you are in a bit of trouble, but worst thign that will happen is that you delete the boot partition, leave the rest, adn let XP install and make its own partition on the empty space at front of HD. THEN, if you cannot get to your DATA, run PM 8.0 again from floppy, and this time convert everything but the boot partitions to FAT32. THAT, XP on your remaining installed boot part, XP can read from and you can recover things like email and other stuff that way.
Question??? Since you are online you can doa more-than-one-computer recovery scenario. MAKE a PM 8.0 floppy recovery set from your desktop machine, CD boott eh PM CD in that, let it ask you if you want to make floppies, say yes, it will make you a two floppy set that will boot and do this on the laptop. THIS is how PowerQuest allows for dunderheads like you and me who fubar things now and then.... Got SEVERAL of those T-shirts, just try to do it to myself and not a customer's box first, so I know how to fix it first out in the field.
to make you feel better, today I got teh wild hairy idea mom's computer might have gotten a bad driver installed. Went to MSI's Taiwan website, downloaded driver, installed lickety split, and NO VIDEO on reboot. I restarted teh box, it restarted with CTRL-ALT-DEL twice so I knew windows had loaded and the montior did nto like the video mode, so here's what I did:
Tapped F8 repeatedly, got into the boot menu, told it DOS MODE only, and typed in this:
scanreg /restore
I then rolled the registry back to two days ago, did it again with a fresh download from a different MSI site-- same thing, no video. Mom's computer is now happy as a clam with a registry from two days ago, AGAIN. For mom's box, knowing how to roll back the Widnows 98 registry saved my tail from getting sore, my mouth from spewing out words I will not record here, and my mind from frustration.
Welcome back, Vicodin.
For YOUR box, easiest thing is a PM 8.0 floppy set, which will laod PM 8.0 from floppy. Most of the CD contents is actually troubleshooting guides, in acrobat reader form.
IF it will let you see it, the advanced choice in actions will let you activate it. THEN you can do other tings. PM can set parts non-active so nothing but PM can act on them, and only it can unlock them easily-- by setting partiiton active again first. It's just not allowing work on an inactive part because it is not set active before you try to work on it.