Boot problem and semi-invisible folders

[walkerwj55]

Hi.
My son called and said his computer will not boot. I picked it up and
confirmed it won't boot normally or into safe mode. I booted with the XP CD
to try to repair but it did not see any XP installations. I installed another
boot drive and slaved the original. The original drive is seen as an NTFS
drive with folders in it. The hidden boot files including ntldr seem intact.
In the Documents and Settings folder, however, there is nothing under his
folder name, all gone. I ran Ontrack and it seems to see everything under his
folder name. I ran Ontrack diagnostics and it found 4 bad sectors. I prep for
a reformat, I used MS Backup to B/U the three user folders and, suprise, it
also saw everything under his folder name.
What would keep XP from booting and Explorer from seeing his folder
contents, but let Backup and Ontrack see the contents. Thanks for any input.

 

[SC Tom]

Hi.
My son called and said his computer will not boot. I picked it up and
confirmed it won't boot normally or into safe mode. I booted with the XP
CD
to try to repair but it did not see any XP installations. I installed
another
boot drive and slaved the original. The original drive is seen as an NTFS
drive with folders in it. The hidden boot files including ntldr seem
intact.
In the Documents and Settings folder, however, there is nothing under his
folder name, all gone. I ran Ontrack and it seems to see everything under
his
folder name. I ran Ontrack diagnostics and it found 4 bad sectors. I prep
for
a reformat, I used MS Backup to B/U the three user folders and, suprise,
it
also saw everything under his folder name.
What would keep XP from booting and Explorer from seeing his folder
contents, but let Backup and Ontrack see the contents. Thanks for any
input.

HDD controller going bad? BIOS settings lost? You could try putting the hard
drive on another IDE or SATA (depending on what it is) and see if that makes
a difference. Upon boot up, go into BIOS and see if it's being recognized.

SC Tom

 

[walkerwj55]

The drive is seen in the BIOS and in the Computer Management section of
Control Panel.

 

[thecreator]

Hi walkerj55,

Somehow, the Boot.ini got messed up / corrupted. Meaning? I believe that
the BOOT.INI file is pointing to the wrong partition. However, you haven't
said, what the computer has or what the computer is. Desktop Computer?
Laptop Computer? If Desktop, how many Hard Drives or partitions are being
used?

 

[walkerwj55]

Thaks for the reply.

The computer is a homegrown Mid tower design with a Intel MB, 1GHz P3
processor, 512MB ram, with an 80GB master (problem drive) and 40GB slave
drive on IDE channel 1, one partition on each drive. DVD-RW on IDE channel 2.
Windows XP Pro SP3. Simple setup.

Boot.ini:
[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
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Thanks.

 

[thecreator]

Hi walkerwj55,

You have made changes to the computer in order to get the Hard Drive up
and to see the folders and files on the Hard Drive. It is a weak system as
compare to newer equipment out there.

Before making any changes, did you check Computer BIOS and the Hard
Drive's Boot Order for the Hard Drives, if Hard Drive priority exists in
your Son's Computer. Have you cleaned the inside of the computer case to
remove the Dust?

You reformatted the Hard Drive? Is it working now?


--
thecreator

Thaks for the reply.

The computer is a homegrown Mid tower design with a Intel MB, 1GHz P3
processor, 512MB ram, with an 80GB master (problem drive) and 40GB slave
drive on IDE channel 1, one partition on each drive. DVD-RW on IDE channel
2.
Windows XP Pro SP3. Simple setup.

Boot.ini:
[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
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Thanks.

Hi walkerj55,

Somehow, the Boot.ini got messed up / corrupted. Meaning? I believe
that
the BOOT.INI file is pointing to the wrong partition. However, you
haven't
said, what the computer has or what the computer is. Desktop Computer?
Laptop Computer? If Desktop, how many Hard Drives or partitions are being
used?

 

[walkerwj55]

Hi.
Yes, I installed another drive as the master to boot the computer. The
Boot.ini file I posted is NOT from that drive, it is from the original master
drive that is now a slave so that I could view it. The inside is pretty clean
since I last worked in it Nov. 08.

I did NOT reformat the original master. Everything I stated I did was in
preparation for reformating, which I held off on after Backup saw the
contents of the folder I previously noted. My previous posts are pretty clear
as to how the drive was seen or not seen. Seen by the BIOS, XP repair said no
XP found, etc. Thanks.