corrupted XP recovery

[Guest]

Working on boss' daughter's computer - again. Couldn't remove trojan even
with Norton removal tool, then one reboot it wouldn't (I didn't do anything,
honest, just crapped out, bad c_1252.nls file). Using install CD to try
repair. Recovery Console comes up with c:\>, no version of windows listed to
go into/repair. DIR cmd on c:\ gives "an error occurred during directory
enumberation". Choosing setup option from boot CD shows partition C as
"unknown". No boot floppy ever made that I know of. Anyone have any ideas I
can pursue to repair and recover some files, or is format/reinstall my only
option at this point?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

You don't want to go into the Recovery Console for a 'Repair' installation
of XP. Please have a look at the following link to Michael Stevens web
site:

"How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install"
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Guest]

Will, I saw a previous post of yours that mentioned this link, went there and
followed the instructions on the link prior to first post. However, doing
this does not find any existing Windows installations to repair. What next?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Reboot your system and keep tapping the F8 key to see if you can access a
screen that has 'Last Known Good Configuration' as an option. Try that to
see if you can access Windows.

--


Will Denny
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Guest]

Just to make sure, I revisited the link, and found more info under Warning #2
- If Repair option is not available. Bootcfg didn't work, Chkdsk found
problem so I ran it again to repair errors. Was then able to boot off CD and
at least see Windows installation to begin repair. Now I'm stuck again -
Setup performed repair then went to reboot, but keeps booting into safe mode;
setup cannot run under safe mode. Even using F8 and selecting "start
normally" won't keep it out of Safe Mode. How can I get rid of safe mode to
allow setup to finish the repair?

 

[Guest]

It's alive! Sorry if this gets long but wanted to share recovery method. I
had been booting in safe mode prior to crash, and realized that 1) need to
remove /safeboot switch from boot.ini and 2) now can see OS so can use
Recovery Console (RC) to work on boot.ini. Booted off CD into R option. RC
does not support edit command, so, 1) copied boot.ini to another name just in
case 2) Removed attributes from boot.ini one at a time as that appears to be
all RC allows. 3) Deleted boot.ini. 4) Ran bootcfg /rebuild 5) Ran bootcfg
/default and selected new boot option as default (gets rid of safe mode
boot). 6) Exit RC and reboot - finally runs into completion of repair setup.
7) Reboot, choose new boot option, I'm there! Now just need to edit boot.ini
to remove old entry and enter OS name for new entry. AND, now I need to work

 

[dagdabrona]

Greetings,

You can try Active@ Partition Recovery to restore lost partition. It
works really great. You can give it a try, I think it will be able to
help you as it helped me. Really good tool. Recommended!
http://www.partition-recovery.com/