Cannot boot XP pro anymore!!!!

[Richard]

Hi,

I am using XP pro with sp1 pack.

I cannot boot XP anymore, no matter what I do.
I have tried "safe mode" or booting from CD and nothing
works.

I have tried the C:/ disk in another computer running XP,
in slave mode. I could see my drive but cannot open any
folders. I had this message: The volume does not contain a
recognised file system.
Other messages I have in fifferent situations are:
Corrupt master file table
The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable

I would have like to use "recovery" on the CD but I cannot
even boot from the CD.

Does this means that I will lose everything or is there
someone outhere that have a solution to nthis annoying
situation?

Thanks for your help

Richard

 

[Harry Ohrn]

You should be able to boot off the CD. Have you set the BIOS so the CD-Rom
is set to boot before your hard drive? What exactly happens when you try to
boot the CD?

If you can find a way to boot your XP CD then choose the option to Repair
using the Recovery Console. When prompted for an Administrator password just
press the Enter key to leave blank. You should get a command prompt. Then
type
FIXBOOT and press Enter. Next type FIXMBR and press Enter. To quit make sure
you remove the XP CD then type EXIT and press Enter. The computer should
reboot.

 

[Richard]

Thanks for taking time to reply.

I am setup at the bios to boot from CDrom.
When the computer starts to boot from CDrom I have a
message stating : "Setup is inspecting your hardware
configuration"

Then after a few seconds I get a blank black sreen,
nothing else and it stays there for ever.

Richard

-----Original Message-----
You should be able to boot off the CD. Have you set the BIOS so the CD-Rom
is set to boot before your hard drive? What exactly happens when you try to
boot the CD?

If you can find a way to boot your XP CD then choose the option to Repair
using the Recovery Console. When prompted for an Administrator password just
press the Enter key to leave blank. You should get a command prompt. Then
type
FIXBOOT and press Enter. Next type FIXMBR and press Enter. To quit make sure
you remove the XP CD then type EXIT and press Enter. The computer should
reboot.
--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell\\User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

Hi,

I am using XP pro with sp1 pack.

I cannot boot XP anymore, no matter what I do.
I have tried "safe mode" or booting from CD and nothing
works.

I have tried the C:/ disk in another computer running XP,
in slave mode. I could see my drive but cannot open any
folders. I had this message: The volume does not contain a
recognised file system.
Other messages I have in fifferent situations are:
Corrupt master file table
The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable

I would have like to use "recovery" on the CD but I cannot
even boot from the CD.

Does this means that I will lose everything or is there
someone outhere that have a solution to nthis annoying
situation?

Thanks for your help

Richard

.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have tried the C:/ disk in another computer running XP,
in slave mode. I could see my drive but cannot open any
folders. I had this message: The volume does not contain a
recognised file system.
Other messages I have in fifferent situations are:
Corrupt master file table
The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable

I would have like to use "recovery" on the CD but I cannot
even boot from the CD.

If you can't even get the CD to boot after setting that first in BIOS
then there is something wrong in the hardware of the machine. It sounds
as if this *may* have damaged the partition on the hard disk too, but I
think that would call for someone expert, hands on with the right
tools, to assess what has happened

 

[Alex Nichol]

Thanks for taking time to reply.

I am setup at the bios to boot from CDrom.
When the computer starts to boot from CDrom I have a
message stating : "Setup is inspecting your hardware
configuration"

Then after a few seconds I get a blank black sreen,
nothing else and it stays there for ever.

Then it has at least started the boot of the basic system from the CD.
In which case there is something very funny going on with *some*
hardware component.

I would try first disconnecting everything you can that is not essential
to the basic functioning of the machine (ie Keyboard, mouse, Hard and CD
drives. Monitor) and see what happens. Especially disconnect USB
devices. If your keyboard/Mouse are USB ones, see if you can borrow -
old fashioned' PS/2 ones and see if they work.

If this sort of base level test is not enough, then its a repair shop
job - and make it *absolutely* clear that this is not to include
reformatting the hard disk as it contains valuable data