Windows XP won't boot for anything :(

Hi, I have been posting around numerous different forums and trying different procedures to bring my computer back to life. I have no normal XP CD, I only have an emergency Recovery CD my Manufacter(powerspec) gave with the computer. I don't know if the Emergency Recovery CD has SP1 or SP2 on it. I'm not quite sure how to tell. From re-installing the operating system I don't even know if SP1 or 2 is even on it now. I'm going to post links to other topics(from other sites) to show you everything I've tried, I can only ask that you read them, many people don't read them and they give me the same methods I've already tried. I've never recovered a computer this bad before in my life. I've been trying for like a month with no such luck.

Thanks,
SmokeyBandit

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=9&t=64857
http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/forum/showthread.php?p=88876
http://aaotracker.4players.de/thread.php?sid=&postid=1404688#post1404688

 

Hello Smokey,

I've read thru your links.

Sorry to say, what you need to do is get to the Recovery Console which would allow you to get to a command prompt. From there you woud run chkdsk with /r (repair damaged files) and /f (lock out bad areas on the HD) switches. That would also allow trying System Restore.

For that you need a XP cd, and I'm aware you don't have one.

Your choices are:

Get a XP cd - you don't have to get a full retail one, an "upgrade" is the full OS, the difference is that on installation, you have to have a 9X OS cd (any 9X cd) to show you have "qualifying" media. Also about half the price. The next time you buy a system, insist on a XP cd instead of whatever the OEM feels like giving you.

There is a good possibilty that your HD is damaged - in that case the current restore cd may not work with a new HD depending on whether there is a recovery partition on the current HD that the restore cd needs - I don't know.

Regards - Charles

 

have you installed the restore cd to see if it will run? It should put your comp back to the exact state as when you first started it new. So whatever you had then you will have after the restore. But you must start the comp with the restore disc already inserted in the CD tray.

 

Hi Smokey

When XP refuses to boot up, the cause of the problem is typically in the MBR, the boot sector and/or a few key files in the root directory. The MBR is universal whether it is for DOS, Win9x, WinNT, or even for Linux. On the other hand, once the boot up partition is selected the corresponding boot sector (the first sector of the partition) supplies a specific boot code which is either for the DOS family (DOS/Win9x/ME) or the NT family. (In the DOS family, the first file loaded will be C:\IO.SYS which is Windows-version specific. In the NT family, the first file loaded will be NTLDR which is not version-specific.)

The standard procedure for such an occasion is to use the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). But it requires an in-depth understanding of the operating system environment. It is not for everybody. Besides, it is just too slow.

That being said, creation of a Quick Boot Disket (http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm) should help you reboot.

If it were my box & I still cannot boot up using the Quick Boot Diskette made by the technique above, I'd pop in a Live CD of Damn Small Linux (DSL, 50MB) run it from RAM ( and finally know the true meaning of a FAST computer) & wonder why I wasted my time with Windows! LOL!

Hope this helps...

 

I found the files on my temporary computer winnt32(Recovery Console I believe) and a few others in a folder I made a few weeks ago for files to work on my broken computer. I'm not sure if I took them off the recovery CD or some where else on this temp.computer. The recovery CD #2 didn't have the files I thought it had on it earlier so I may have accidently cut instead of copied. Anyways I took all the files in a folder named I386 and i386DIST and burnt them on a CD. I then tried following these directions on this link here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/vinson1.mspx

The option that worked for me since I have Caldera's Dr.DOS working is that I could try to run winnt.exe and then hit repair. Well I did that and I got this error:

"An internal setup error has occured
Could not find a place for a swap file.
Setup cannot contine
Press Enter to Exit"

Does this verify my hard-drive is destroyed?

 

you can get into your XP install if you use the Knoppix live CD. you will need to download it and burn it to a CD.

http://www.knoppix.org/

 

Man I started downloading Knobbix, then I saw it's a 710 mb download and all my CDR's are 700MB...argh...

 

You can use Damn Small Linux to recover data from your box, too. Its a small 50MB download.

 

Okay, I feel really stupid for asking this question, but how exactly do you download Damn Small Linux. I went to the official site and click a mirror site download such as this one...

ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/

and it brings me to that webpage. How do I download the files, and which ones do I need?

Thanks!

 

Download and install the Bit Torrent App then goto: http://www.tlm-project.org/public/distributions/damnsmall/ to download the dsl-1.5.iso.torrent file. Burn a CD image using an ISO recorder app, pop CD in and you'll be up and running.... Enjoy!

 

BTW, after you've downloaded and installed your ISO Recorder application, simply right click on dsl-1.5.iso.torrent and copy image to a blank writable disk in your CD drive.

 

i'd use this link to download Damn Small Linux. that's if you know they are all live CDs, if not then i'm not sure.
current.iso 05-Sep-2005 23:42 49M
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/current/current.iso

 

iceni,
is that the full operating system or just the boot image. Is that all I must burn to a CD?

 

Copy ISO image (48.85MB) to CD. That's it!

 

Thanks!
One more question and then I should be done. To put the DSL on my HD how do I make a partition?

 

There is no need for that if you just run it "Live" for Windows recovery purposes...

 

But should you want to install DSL cause its such a cool operating system, go here: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/f/forum-2-5-0-0.html

 

How would I be able to recover windows by just running it live? What I was thinking of doing was put it on my HD and then burning all my files onto a CD, and then clear everything off the hard-drive and start all over again.

 

I tried starting cfdisk and all I could get was an internal error.