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

Hello,

I believe I should be able to fix my computer with some more of your help. I made the boot disk with the modified boot.ini file as you wrote it and I copied the files you told me to it. Let me tell you what else I did because I don't think I will need this disk.

I have a spare IDE hard drive for my computer that I want to setup dual booting with Vista on my computer after I get XP fixed. It has been formatted with one partition. So neither of us get confused on the disk I am talking about I will call them by their factory names. The one I removed the partition on and I am trying to get to boot to XP is a Western Digital drive. The spare drive I had is a Seagate, both are 80GB.

I installed the Seagate in my computer and made it a slave to the Western Digital. I then booted to Dos and cloned the Western Digital XP disk to the empty Seagate drive. I removed the Western Digital disk and set the Seagate as the primary. I then used the HP system CDs to do a safe Recovery. I found the safe Recovery does not format the drive or change the partitions. It is not suppose to delete all the files the user put on there. I have to disagree with that part though.

By doing the above I got my computer to boot XP off of the Seagate drive with the only partition being "C". I actually used this computer to make the boot disk. I made 2 of them. One I made and left the boot.ini file alone. The other boot disk I made I modified the boot.ini as you instructed. Although I have the Seagate drive booted and running XP I would like to fix the Western Digital drive and go back to that one. The Seagate is like a Frankenstein Monster. It is back to like out of the box state, but with having my files on it. None of the programs I added to the computer will run now either. It is running very slow too. So I am hoping you can tell me what to copy off of the Seagate to the Western Digital so I can boot the WD drive without changing anything else. I am hoping to avoid what happen to the Seagate drive happening to the WD. That is why I used a spare hard drive and not the WD drive.

Here is what the Boot.ini file looks like on the Seagate drive:

"[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect"

Another thing; the Seagate says it is XP Home Sp1 and the Western Digital is XP Home Sp2 and was fully up to date before I could not boot it anymore. Can I just copy the boot.ini file from the Seagate to the WD along with the other files you told me to copy to boot disk? Will that fix the boot trouble on the WD drive? I didn't do anything to the WD drive yet. I wanted to write you first. If I have not given you enough information let me know. I am hoping I am at a spot where I can easily fix the WD drive.

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

James



"Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ODHUk$8rIHA.1316@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If push comes to shove then you might have to ask your friendly
computer dealer for an old floppy disk drive that you could then
connect to your own PC, thus removing the need for a CD burner.
The rest of my instructions would remain the same.


"James" <flyerfanno1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:eJ%23pw78rIHA.3940@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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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