Re: Please help! Can't boot my computer after removing partition.

Hello,

Thank you so much for the instructions you have given me. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out. I will do as you wrote and report back how I make out.

Please keep in mind it will take me a few days to find someone with XP plus have a CD writer and a floppy drive. So you won't see the results for a little while.

Thanks again,
James



"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uQIH5z7rIHA.4360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"James" <flyerfanno1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:8C5E1D20-2CA2-4D54-9924-78BA35F2178C@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello,

Can someone please help me? I have a desktop pc running Windows XP Home SP2
fully updated. The hard drive is an 80GB IDE with 2 partitions. The first
partition "D" was 5.27 GB and had the Recovery Files on it from HP. The
second partition "C" has the operating system on it. I have been trying to
get rid of that first partition on my hard drive because I no longer needed
the recover files that were on there. HP gives instructions on how to delete
this partition with a Tools CD that you make from your computer. HP writes
that not every computer ships with the software needed to make the disc and
mine did not have the software. So I used Gparted to remove the partition.
Then expanded the operating partition to the full size of the hard drive.
When I went to boot the pc after exiting Gparted I got a black screen
instead of the computer booting. Please keep in mind I do not have the XP CD
mention below. My recovery CDs is bundled software from HP. That will only
put my system back to the out of box state with the 2 partitions. I only
want the one partition.

The black screen has the following information on it:



"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the
cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings and click Next.
3. Click Repair your computer.


If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer
manufacturer for assistance.


File:\NTLDR

Status: 0xc0000225

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is
missing or corrupt."



I am positive the problem is from removing the partition, but that should
not have deleted any necessary files. As I wrote earlier HP gives
instructions on how to remove the partition. I just could not do it the way
HP explains. I believe the problem is because the computer is setup to boot
off the first hard drive second partition. Now all the files are on the
first drive and first partition. I was able to get to the boot.ini file. The
settings were set at rdisk (0) partition (2). I changed the partition
setting to (1) and saved the boot.ini file. I still get the same screen. Is
there something else I need to change? I am the administrator and I don't
have an XP disc so I can't try the instructions given on the black screen. I
could contact HP, but I was hoping someone here could help me.

Any suggestions or help anyone can provide me would be very much
appreciated. I can't boot my computer at all.

Thank you,
James


Let's find out if it's only the boot environment that's damaged or if
Windows itself is corrupted. You can do it like so:
- Find a WinXP machine with a floppy disk drive and a CD burner.
- Format the floppy disk.
- Copy thes hidden files to the floppy disk:
* c:\ntdetect.com
* c:\ntldr
* c:\boot.ini
- Modify a:\boot.ini so that you have six lines that look like so:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1 Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="2 Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="3 Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="4 Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="5 Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="6 Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
- Using the CD burner, create a boot CD off this floppy disk.
Use a CD/RW in case you get it wrong.
- Set the BIOS of your own machine so that it uses the
CD drive as its primary boot device.
- Boot your machine with this CD, trying each of the six options.
- Report the results here.


.

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