Attempted a repair install of XP pro, but it stops during "completing installation" at the 25 min mark. Tried rebuilding boot.ini to see if it would boot back into windows, but no luck...still boots to setup. Knoppix on DVD allows me to see that all my files are still intact. Any ideas will be appreciated in case a full install can be averted.
thank you SOOOOO much,
saved the day, c had somehow turned into d after installing a mini pci-e wireless n card - customer didn't want new os despite my attempts at trying to convince him,
couldn't access it to change drive letter, deleted d to make it os c, then after loads of different tries -
I CAME ACROSS YOUR POST AND IT FIXED
though i did have to use winternals disk management to mark the partition as active before it worked,
THANK YOU!!!
I have done th whole process n it seems like it went ok but now when
Take the cd out n try to boot I just have the blinking cursor at the top
Of the black screen? A y suggestion it all started after avast was trying
To be reinstalled on reboot it come up with compressed ntldr, also now
On boot with cd it just keeps comin up with key to boot from cd?
The easiest solution for this type is the following which i just carreid out btw. For this to work you need access to a second machine with xp loaded. I didn't have one at home... since all my pc's and laptops in the house run on win7, i still have an old (11yrs) amd athlon xp 3000 which i keep for sentimental reasons and that is the one which i need repair.
I am lucky enough to have win xp pro at work however... so this is what i have done:
1) download a live linux cd... i used knoppix but any will do.
2) go to work... PULL THE NETWORK CABLE OUT, put you live cd and boot....
3).... navigate to winnt/system32/config and copy the little bugger system.
4) logoff linux, remove cd... replug the netwrok cable... and boot your work machine.
5) pretend to work
6) go home .. boot your broken machine with the live cd, naveigate to system32/config.. bla bla bla... e copy over the system file.
logoff linux and reboot.
And voila`! job done...
it took actually longer in typing this crap.. than actually getting the old banger fixed!
After you done that...get in your win xp desktop.... admire and be proud of yourself, you have saved once again that old machine of yours.. remember the old battles in cod and cod1.... get sentimental.....
after that turn it off, realize that you do need a life... and you should focus more on women and friends....
get a life.
Wow...you saved my ass! Thank you. I checked the MS site and they showed the same thing but in such technical terms...you need a degree to understand. Your steps worked for me without any issue. Again, thank you!
am backpackin in south america, i didn´t bring my or
original xp cd with me, can only locate spanish versions here... would this still work? also, of course, i didn´t bring an external cd drive either. if i cant, and believe me i´ve tried about 20 internet cafes so far.... can i somehow boot resolve this using another pc that is running xp?
I had blue screen error 0x00000080 and tried your eight steps. Sorry for me. It did not work, but thanks for your effort to do the work and publish it.
Yo Gyro Gearloose,
you surely sound like a dude who's mad that he doesn't have a following like the savior who was kind enough to write this article. I'm geek extraordinaire for sure, yet he helped me. All I can say is "thanks" to him and "get a life!" to you
Dear All,
I followed the steps outlined above, and when I typed exit, I removed the installation CD, and tried to boot the PC normally (w/out the CD), and I went to a black screen saying "Operating System not Found'.
Can anyone help please, or direct me to where I can find the solution?
Thanks,
Max
Did you encounter any errors during that process? If a step failed to perform correctly, then you should note it. Make sure all physical connections are secure (drive cables, etc) and follow steps, noting if it fails anywhere, or says file not found, etc.
@ Tushon: I did all the steps outlined here successfully..No problems. But when I wanted to boot ater the last step it gave me the following messages:
PXE-E61: media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
Operating System not found.
Check in your BIOS options for the startup menu. That message is saying that it is trying to boot from LAN connection, rather than HDD. Make sure that the order is either HDD then CD or CD then HDD (but make sure you removed the disc you had in the CD drive). You may want to disable the LAN boot option so that the PC doesn't even try it.
It's funny; no matter how long you work in the computer repair industry it's always easy to forget the little things!
Today is the first in perhaps 4 years that I have had a customer with this problem and for the life of me I could not remember the required commands to get her system up and running again.
Thankfully this was the first article I cam across in Google search results and it provided the refresher I needed to get her system kicking again.
Of course I backed up the boot.ini first, just to be sure, and put all the switches within a single command rather than 1 line each since it just makes more since and lo-and-behold the system was back up and running within 10 minutes.
i am stuck ! !
thought to repair xp using the second repair option in xp setup (assuming the first to be recovery console adn second, after detecting a previous xp installed)
the windows xp setup didnt detect the previous windows xp installed in my hard drive.
what would be the reason behind null detection
also is there any way that i can copy files from xp files to windows directory using command prompt
hence repairing it faster ?
Comments
You are using "cd .." to change directory up a level to get to the root of the C drive
saved the day, c had somehow turned into d after installing a mini pci-e wireless n card - customer didn't want new os despite my attempts at trying to convince him,
couldn't access it to change drive letter, deleted d to make it os c, then after loads of different tries -
I CAME ACROSS YOUR POST AND IT FIXED
though i did have to use winternals disk management to mark the partition as active before it worked,
THANK YOU!!!
Take the cd out n try to boot I just have the blinking cursor at the top
Of the black screen? A y suggestion it all started after avast was trying
To be reinstalled on reboot it come up with compressed ntldr, also now
On boot with cd it just keeps comin up with key to boot from cd?
I am lucky enough to have win xp pro at work however... so this is what i have done:
1) download a live linux cd... i used knoppix but any will do.
2) go to work... PULL THE NETWORK CABLE OUT, put you live cd and boot....
3).... navigate to winnt/system32/config and copy the little bugger system.
4) logoff linux, remove cd... replug the netwrok cable... and boot your work machine.
5) pretend to work
6) go home .. boot your broken machine with the live cd, naveigate to system32/config.. bla bla bla... e copy over the system file.
logoff linux and reboot.
And voila`! job done...
it took actually longer in typing this crap.. than actually getting the old banger fixed!
After you done that...get in your win xp desktop.... admire and be proud of yourself, you have saved once again that old machine of yours.. remember the old battles in cod and cod1.... get sentimental.....
after that turn it off, realize that you do need a life... and you should focus more on women and friends....
get a life.
original xp cd with me, can only locate spanish versions here... would this still work? also, of course, i didn´t bring an external cd drive either. if i cant, and believe me i´ve tried about 20 internet cafes so far.... can i somehow boot resolve this using another pc that is running xp?
it helped me keep my documents and my OS back to me
thanks a lot
you surely sound like a dude who's mad that he doesn't have a following like the savior who was kind enough to write this article. I'm geek extraordinaire for sure, yet he helped me. All I can say is "thanks" to him and "get a life!" to you
I followed the steps outlined above, and when I typed exit, I removed the installation CD, and tried to boot the PC normally (w/out the CD), and I went to a black screen saying "Operating System not Found'.
Can anyone help please, or direct me to where I can find the solution?
Thanks,
Max
PXE-E61: media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
Operating System not found.
Thanks...
Today is the first in perhaps 4 years that I have had a customer with this problem and for the life of me I could not remember the required commands to get her system up and running again.
Thankfully this was the first article I cam across in Google search results and it provided the refresher I needed to get her system kicking again.
Of course I backed up the boot.ini first, just to be sure, and put all the switches within a single command rather than 1 line each since it just makes more since and lo-and-behold the system was back up and running within 10 minutes.
jokes, glad it helped you and the 1000s of others who have viewed it
Marcelo
_________
My Twitter
thought to repair xp using the second repair option in xp setup (assuming the first to be recovery console adn second, after detecting a previous xp installed)
the windows xp setup didnt detect the previous windows xp installed in my hard drive.
what would be the reason behind null detection
also is there any way that i can copy files from xp files to windows directory using command prompt
hence repairing it faster ?