fixboot cannot find the system drive or the drive specified is not valid

johnnycase · January 2009

Long sad story, please bear with me.

<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMe%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMe%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMe%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 &nbsp* </style>My drive was dying but was still recoverable using commercial recovery software. Unfortunately, I only did a partial recovery and when I tried again, the drive had failed further to where there was no longer a drive letter and the commercial recovery software was no longer an option. So I tried Recovery Console but got "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: system32\drivers\ntfs.sys. So i installed a floppy drive, and tried to copy a new ntfs.sys onto the hard drive but i got "access is denied". Then i tried a dir on the c drive and i got "an error occurred during directory enumeration". Following some other online discussions I tried a "fixmbr" which was successful but accomplished nothing. Then i tried "fixboot" and got "fixboot cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid". I've also tried chkdsk /r and got "the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems".

The drive is a Western Digital 400gb (wd4000yr) and i'm on an xp pro hp system.

Short of paying a gazillion dollars to DriveSavers, anyone have any more suggestions? I'm nearing the end of my rope!

thanks in advance

the_technocrat · January 2009

http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp

johnnycase · January 2009

the_technocrat wrote:

http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp

I tried this but at the first attrib command I got "the file cannot be opened". Anything else I can try?

thanks again!

fixboot cannot find the system drive or the drive specified is not valid

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