I just posted this when -ff-'s computer went kaboom, I'm sure somebody else might find it useful at somepoint in time...
Windows XP Machine Won't Boot?
TRY THESE OPTIONS. NONE OF THESE OPTION WILL ERASE, MODIFY OR DAMAGE ANY FILES YOU MAY HAVE SAVED ON YOUR HARD-DRIVE. THEY WILL ONLY REPAIR.
HOWEVER, ANY FILES THAT WERE IN THE ALL USERS & DEFUALT USER FOLDER MAY BE LOST DURING REPAIR.
YOUR DATA WILL MOre THAN LIKELY BE IN YOUR USER DIRECTORY (IE. USERNAME) OR THE ADMINISTRATOR DIRECTORY AND NOT BE AFFECTED.
CLEARLY YOU CAN'T HOLD ME RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BREAK OR ERASE SOMETHING. BUT AS LONG AS YOU FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS YOU SHOULD BE FINE.
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First: Check to see that your hard drive is physically installed correctly:
IM USING DIFFERENT COLORED CMOS SCREENS! IGNORE THE COLORS!
1. Boot your computer up and hold down the DEL key as it powers up, this should bring you into the BIOS screen.
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
2. Select
STANDARD CMOS SETUP You screen should look something like one of these two screens :
CLICK TO ENLARGE
OR 
CLICK TO ENLARGe
3. Listed will be your IDE devices (Hard drives and CDROMs) As
PRIMARY MASTER
PRIMARY SLAVE
SECONDARY MASTER
SECONDARY SLAVE
Your hard drive should be listen in
PRIMARY MASTER if all is well. You can also use the IDE HDD AUTO DETECTION selection at the first bios screen to auto detect your hard drive.
IMPORTANT: TO EXIT WITHOUT MAKING ANY CHANGES REGARDLESS OF YOUR COMPUTER HOLD DOWN THE POWER BUTTON UNTIL YOUR COMPUTER SHUTS DOWN.
DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING IN CMOS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND!!!
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Use Your Windows XP CD to Repair the Installation:
FOLLOW THESE DIRECTION EXACTLY TO REPAIR WINDOWS WITHOUT ERASING YOUR FILES
Your windows XP CD can do a repair installation overtop of your broken installation. This will replace all your windows files with the original versions off the CD. This will make windows revert to the original installation verions. THIS WILL NOT ERASE ANY FILES YOU HAVE IN YOUR MY DOCUMENTS FOLDERS OR ANY FILES ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE COMPUTER
1. Boot your computer using your Windows XP CD. When it has finish booting you will get this screen:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
2. Hit
ENTER to set up Windows XP. The Liscence Agreement will probably come up:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
3. Hit
F8 to agree and continute. Your hard drive information should come up, there will be a partition which is where your previous versions of windows is installed:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
4. Select the partition and hit
R to start the repair installation. This will just install windows overtop of your old copy.
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Use Your Windows XP CD to Repair the Boot.ini
1. If
REPAIR isn't one of the options available above, reboot your computer with your Windows XP CD. The Windows XP setup screen will comes:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
2. Hit
R to load the
RECOVERY CONSOLE Don't worry, this is very, very simple. All you need to do at this point is to type in
bootcfg /rebuild
and hit
ENTER.
This will fix any problems in the Windows XP boot configuration.
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If Your Computer Gives the Error Message: NTLDR NOT FOUND
1. Boot your computer using your Windows XP CD. When it has finish booting you will get this screen:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
2. Hit
R to load the
RECOVERY CONSOLE Don't worry, this is very, very simple. All you need to do at this point is to type in
NOTE: PUT YOUR CDROM LETTER WHERE X IS (USUALLY D)
copy X:\i386\ntldr c:\
hit
ENTER.
Next Type in:
copy X:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
and hit
ENTER.
This will copy ntldr over to your computer.
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Last Resort to Repair Boot.ini Without Damaging Any of Your Files:
1. Boot your computer using your Windows XP CD. When it has finish booting you will get this screen:
CLICK TO ENLARGE
CLICK TO ENLARGE
2. Hit
R to load the
RECOVERY CONSOLE Don't worry, this is very, very simple. All you need to do at this point is to type in:
attrib -h -r -s c:\boot.ini del c:\boot.ini
hit
ENTER
Next Type in:
bootcft /rebuild
and hit
ENTER.
This will clear out boot.ini and then search your system for a bootable Operating system.
Jan 25, 05
