Re: no operating system upon boot
From: Zattack (nospam_at_orionfirst.com)
Date: 11/04/04
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Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 12:13:42 -0800
I really do appreciate the help RC. Unfortunately time was of the essense
to get the laptop working again and in this case while it is a pain to fully
format and reinstall everything, there truly was nothing that couldn't be
replaced on that laptop. So I decided to use Sony's solution and totally
reformat & install through their system restore disks. Really this solved a
couple problems because I could get the system back to a single drive non
partitioned out and I could gut alot of useless programs that had been
accumulated yet were not easily identified. In my case I was somewhat lucky
because I hadn't stored anything valuable on the laptop that could not be
reinstalled.
Thanks again,
Z
"R. C. White" <rc@corridor.net> wrote in message
news:OHFMQNbwEHA.1452@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi, Zattack.
>
> I've waited a couple of days hoping someone would jump in with the tip for
> setting a volume Active when you can't boot WinXP.
>
> It's easy to do from WinXP Disk Management - but if you can't boot, that
> doesn't help. :>( I'm pretty sure it can be done from the Recovery
> Console, but I can't find it in the instructions in the WinXP Resource
Kit.
> (You might try FixMBR and FixBoot, but I'm not sure they would do this.)
>
> I've often recommended that WinXP users "throw away the Win9x/ME boot
disk,
> or at least hide it so that you'll never be tempted to use it again" - but
> that diskette may be the best solution to your problem. Boot into MS-DOS.
> Don't expect to read any NTFS partitions with it, but FDISK creates and
> deletes partitions without regard to their formatting. So, boot to MS-DOS
> and run FDISK to change the Active partition on your hard drive. I've not
> actually done this in a while, but it should work for you.
>
> Please post back and let us know what results you get with this.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> rc@corridor.net
> Microsoft Windows MVP
>
> "Zattack" <nospam@orionfirst.com> wrote in message
> news:ObLDUUFwEHA.2876@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > Setting the new partition to active may have indeed been what I did,
> > however
> > since I cannot boot up to see that I just don't know. What would I need
> > to
> > do to even investigate if the pointers are not going to the correct boot
> > drive?
> >
> > Z
> >
> >
> > "R. C. White" <rc@corridor.net> wrote in message
> > news:OD3aORgvEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> >> Hi, Zattack.
> >>
> >> I've snipped most of the thread so far so that we can concentrate on
your
> >> latest post.
> >>
> >> "Zattack" <nospam@orionfirst.com> wrote in message
> >> news:udYZ3mfvEHA.2192@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> >> >
> >> > Thanks to everyone so far who have posted. I probably have not
> > explained
> >> > the situation as well as could have. Basically the laptop was setup
> > with
> >> > a
> >> > partitioned 14 gig drive. Just over 5 allocated as the primary drive
c
> >> > and
> >> > less than 9 to an extended drive d. Problem is that everything,
> > programs,
> >> > files, windows updates, etc were all going to drive c and it was
maxed
> > out
> >> > on space.
> >>
> >> Not an unusual situation at all. Many of us have wished for more space
> >> in
> >> Drive C:.
> >>
> >> > In an attempt on my part to try and find a solution so that the
drive
> >> D
> >> > could be used more appropriately I ran across the disk management
> > utility.
> >> > My goal was to try and clear drive d and somehow merge it back with
c,
> >> > which
> >> > I now know takes at least a separate piece of software such as
> >> > Partition
> >> > Magic. I didn't have anything like that so what I naively did was
> >> > unallocate drive d. Then I reallocated it as a primary partition and
> >> > formatted it while still in disk management.
> >>
> >> Unnecessary, because WinXP doesn't care whether any volume is primary
or
> >> logical EXCEPT that the System Partition (almost always Drive C:) must
be
> > a
> >> primary partition. The Boot Volume (where the \Windows folder, with
its
> >> gigabytes of files, resides) may be Drive C: or any other volume on any
> >> HD
> >> in your computer. In your case, it apparently was Drive C:. As I
said,
> >> this step was unnecessary and probably did no good, but it did no harm,
> >> either.
> >>
> >> > If you are familiar with the
> >> > disk management utility it has a little window that displays the
drives
> >> > with
> >> > color codes and allows you to click on the drive you want to work
with
> > and
> >> > such. Once drive d had formatted it was the same color as drive c,
> > listed
> >> > itself as a primary drive but still showed it with 9 gig of space as
a
> >> > separate drive from that of drive c (also still listed as a primary
> > drive.
> >>
> >> OK. Situation normal.
> >>
> >> > After exiting the utility I was able to work on a word doc and jump
on
> > the
> >> > internet.
> >>
> >> OK.
> >>
> >> > I closed down and upon reboot recieved the error message.
> >>
> >> NOT OK!
> >>
> >> Now it's time for a lesson in the boot process, but I'm pressed time
for
> >> today.
> >>
> >> Some essential points: The few System Files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and
> >> Boot.ini) must be in the Root of the System Partition: the Active
> > partition
> >> on the first HD, almost always Drive C:. The boot sector of the System
> >> Partition load C:\NTLDR, which uses C:\Boot.ini to find the Boot Volume
> > and
> >> load WinXP from there and start it. The error message you saw says
that
> > the
> >> boot process cannot find an operating system in what it thinks is the
> > System
> >> Partition. It's getting lost on its way to Drive C:. :>(
> >>
> >> It's not a Windows problem, strictly speaking. It's a hardware/BIOS
> >> problem. The boot process can't find ANY operating system. Not WinXP,
> > not
> >> Win9x, not even MS-DOS. Most likely, it's looking in the wrong place.
> > Now
> >> you have to find out where it's looking and direct it back to your
Drive
> > C:.
> >>
> >> > I am
> >> > fairly confident that the c drive is still intact since just shutting
> >> > it
> >> > down should not have erased anything and since as Colin stated
windows
> >> > shouldn't allow you to delete its active drive while you are working
in
> >> > it...
> >>
> >> Agreed. Whatever caused the problem, this wasn't it.
> >>
> >> > So my conclusion appears to be similar to yours, RC, that somehow the
> >> > partition format process I did screwed up the pointer for when I boot
> > the
> >> > system. Without the ability to even reach a dos prompt or navigate
> >> > outside
> >> > windows I don't even know how to fix the pointer problem or begin to
> >> > research it because Sony did not sell the Windows XP software, it
built
> > it
> >> > into the recovery disk as far I understand it. The Sony recovery
disk
> > has
> >> > only two options upon inserting it and rebooting: Format drive C and
> >> > begin
> >> > new install or format all drives and begin install...
> >> >
> >> > Does Fixboot provide a solution to this and if so is a new copy of
> >> > WinXp
> >> > the
> >> > only option? I will most likely start a new thread if I ever get the
> >> > system
> >> > to boot correctly to fix the partitioned allocations but until then I
> > want
> >> > to at least try to recovery the system as it was...
> >>
> >>
> >> Hey, I just thought of something! When you used Disk Management to
> >> create
> >> and format the primary partition that became Drive D:, did you "Mark
> >> Partition as Active"? Each HD can have only ONE Active (bootable)
> > partition
> >> at any one time. If you marked D: as Active, C: would have had to have
> > lost
> >> that designation. The next time you booted, the system would have
looked
> >> for NTLDR, etc., on Drive D:, the active partition. Not finding them
> > there,
> >> it would have given you that "no operating system" message and died -
> >> just
> >> what you saw. I have to run now, but I'll bet that's the answer.
> >>
> >> Sorry to leave you at this point, but I have to run. I'll check back
> >> when
> > I
> >> have time tomorrow.
> >>
> >> RC
>
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