Re: Boot Problems

Gerry once again thanks for your advice. I am afraid that I have been tardy
in responding to you immediately because I have continued to have these
problems and hence no computer access to the Internet. Your educated guess
below is "on the money". I was somehow afraid that I would have to start
all over again. My main concern was backing up my Outlook.pst file with
addresses and e-mails but I think I can handle that. Regrettably because of
the corruption the outlook backup program supplied by MSoft does not work and
I cannot install another one because the computer acts as if I already have a
copy. Other related problems are the configuration of the computer using
Tweakui - including moving My Document, My Pictures etc from C: WinXp
partition on the 1st drive to E: Data partition on the 2nd drive. And of
course having to download all the Windows Updates including SP2. My XPPro
Installation Disk is pre SP1 and SP2. Briefly more below:

"Gerry Cornell" wrote:

Dave

Was the original hard drive in the computer when you formatted and
installed Windows XP on your new hard drive?

Correct

If yes my feeling is that this could be the cause of all your
subsequent problems.

A new installation of XP inevitably means you have to reinstall all
programmes and third party drivers. The only files of interest on your
old drive are the data files.

The way I would install Windows XP is as follows:

1. Disconnect all hardware peripherals, except keyboard, mouse and
monitor.

2. Remove old hard drive and install new drive as master.

3. Format and install Windows XP.but hold off on updates. Turn off
Automatic updating and set it to Notify but not install.

4. If you want to partition use Partition Magic at this stage do so
but I would keep Windows XP and programmes in the same partition.

I still prefer to keep Windows XP and other programs on separate partitions.
I still think that I can re-format the C: partition on the 1st drive
separately without affecting the D: partition on this drive.

5. Set up internet connection and configure Internet Explorer and
Outlook Express for use.

I tend to use Outlook rather than Outlook Express. I run Office 2003 which
includes Outlook.

6. Install freeware Anti-Virus software e.g. AVG 7.5 (ditch Norton
and listen to the loud sigh of relief coming from your computer).

I am happy to try out AVG 7.5 but I already subscribe to Norton System Works
and Personal FireWall. I find the Utilities useful as well as Norton Ghost
for backing up and recovering files, drives, system etc

7. Download and install Windows Defender.

In addition to Norton Personal Fire Wall I certainly use Defender

8. Download and install Adaware and/or Spybot S& D

I rely on Defender and Personal Fire Wall for this

9. Connect other hardware and get latest third party drivers and
software as you deal with each item.

10. Install Windows Updates using an SP2 CD first and then download
and install other updates in sequence but in manageable numbers.

All these I will have to download from the Net

11. Run Disk CleanUp, including More, Options, System Restore
followed by Disk Defragmenter.

Not a problem

12. Introduce your old hard disk as slave. You then need to clean up
the drive if you intend to reuse it.

Again not a problem

If you think it might be best to start again back up all data files to
CD. Then collect all web addresses and instructions need to perform
each task. Write your plan down.

I have done this in the past and certainly keep a number of previously
downloaded installation files for this purpose.

I am by no means experienced in installing Windows XP and setting up a
new system so let's see what others say.

You probably need to rethink your partitioning strategy. If you need
help there just ask in a new thread.

I find that with the combination of WinXPPro and Partition Magic I seem to
have no problems in assigning partition/drive leters

Why did you buy a new hard drive? Was it for extra space or a problem
with the drive? If only for extra space you most likely would have
done better leaving the old hard drive as master and introduced the
new drive as slave.

It was certainly space from an 80Gb tri-partitioned drive to an extra 250Gb
drive bi-partitioned meaning that I can keep all my data on the 80GB rather
than a third of it.
--

Hope this helps.

It certainly does Dave

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frustrated Dave wrote:
Gerry

1stly thanks for your comments and apologies for introducing my
problems to another users thread. After much frustration in
getting
my system up and running with internet access, I followed Help and
Support by searching for "booting" problems and saw this particular
post. It was only after reading a few posts that I ascertained that
the protocol was to start a new post. As to your questions posed:

"Gerry Cornell" wrote:


Dave

You should not introduce your problems to another users thread. It
gets those trying to help confused!

What Error message are you seeing and at what are the cirumstances
when it arises?

Among the errors that I received were the dreaded "Windows could not
start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using
the original Setup CD-ROM"
Since accessing this forum I have learnt much more about this error
but prior to that it meant several attempted re-installations, fresh
installations and the use of the Symantec Recovery Disk which I
purchased as part of Nortons System Works 2006 - which in the end
helped me get my system up and running although I suspect that
somewhere along the line I have picked up some boot/start-up legacy
problems through the use of that Disk - namely the splash screen on
boot up which shows eventually a thick 1/2 " horizontal line made of
1/2" vertical bars which start from left to right at the bottom the
screen. When I eventually managed to boot up and received the above
error message by using the F8 option and booting up initially into
Safe Mode I could boot up normally. Other times Safe Mode also
caused the error message - again through F8 using the Last Known
Configuration which worked also seemed to allow me to boot.


Have you recently changed a hard drive or reinstalled Windows XP?
Have you tried to make the computer dual boot?


Yes this is essentially what I did - my old 80GB drive which had
three
partitions C:WinXp; D:Programs & E: Data was replaced as a Slave
(and
to become my new E: Data - using a logical partition) with a 250GB
Master partitioned as C:WinXp and D: programs. However because of
problems experienced above I also had to re-install Windows XP
several times. At times my slave disk became unallocated and I had
to re-partition it with Partition Magic. Although it was not my
intention to make it a dual boot, it somehow ended up as a dual boot
system which manifested itself in both on the splash screen with two
Windows XP options as well as the boot.ini file. Through trial and
error I have now modified the boot.ini file and have the boot.ini as
part of the system which seems to boot up without the above error.
However the booting up (whether successful or not) seems to take an
inordinate amount of time before the above horizontal line splash
screen occurs - thereafter it is either unsuccessful or successful.
Other problems experienced following a successful boot up include
failure to uninstall and install programs.


Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by
allowing time to write down the STOP code properly.Keep pressing
the
F8 key during Start-Up and select option
- Disable automatic restart on system failure.

I don't think this is the problem - but mainly because through my
ignorance I probably cannot understand what you are attempting to
say. If this issue is related to my above problem I would
appreciate some further explanation as to what you mean by the
automatic restart on system failure.

I hope I have attempted to provide you with further background
information. Once again many thanks.
Dave

Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure until you have
resolved the problem. Check for variants of the Stop Error message.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Frustrated Dave wrote:
I have boot problems as well. Wrt to the use of msconfig.exe I
can
certainly run the PC in this mode and perhaps see an error or two.
The problem is how can I rectify this with a possible solution eg
modify the boot.ini without constantly having to run msconfig.exe
in
the background. If I "log out" of msonfig.exe I am back to the
all
the other boot problems which occurred in the first place.
Help!!!

Dave


.

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