I broke WinXP by reconfiguring my hard drive partition layout

[Guest]

Hi,

I was having virus problems with my pc running Windows XP Home edition, so I
wanted to wipe the hard drive and re-load everything from scratch. I was
afraid to just delete the old installation, so what I did was the
following....

1. Originally, my hard drive consisted of one primary (NTFS) partition that
contained my problem XP Home install. I used v-com System/Partition
Commander to make this partition smaller so as to leave free space at the end
of the hard drive.
2. Next, I used Partition Commander to create a new primary partition in
the free space that I had just created.
3. Next, I installed a brand new instance of XP home in this new primary
partition. I got Windows working, re-installed my applications and data, and
it was working great.
4. Next, I decided to get rid of the old partition with the screwed up XP
Home install. Again, I did this in Partition Commander. First, I deleted
the primary partition containing the old XP install. This was the first
partition on the drive.
5. Next, I moved the partition with my new (good) XP install to the front
of the drive and resized it so that it would take up the whole drive.
6. At this point, I tried to boot to the new XP install and it no longer
works. I get past usual first black screen that says "Windows XP" above a
progress bar. I make it past the next screen that says "Welcome" (dark blue
on the top and bottom, light blue in the middle). After that, I get hung up
on a screen that is also dark blue on the top and bottom, light blue in the
middle that says "Microsoft Windows XP" and shows the Windows logo. It just
hangs here forever, I never get to the point where I can log on.

If anyone can tell me anything I can try, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[ByTor]

(e-mail address removed), =?Utf-8?B?UGF1bCBLcmFlbWVy?=
says...

Hi,

I was having virus problems with my pc running Windows XP Home edition, so I
wanted to wipe the hard drive and re-load everything from scratch. I was
afraid to just delete the old installation, so what I did was the
following....

1. Originally, my hard drive consisted of one primary (NTFS) partition that
contained my problem XP Home install. I used v-com System/Partition
Commander to make this partition smaller so as to leave free space at the end
of the hard drive.
2. Next, I used Partition Commander to create a new primary partition in
the free space that I had just created.
3. Next, I installed a brand new instance of XP home in this new primary
partition. I got Windows working, re-installed my applications and data, and
it was working great.
4. Next, I decided to get rid of the old partition with the screwed up XP
Home install. Again, I did this in Partition Commander. First, I deleted
the primary partition containing the old XP install. This was the first
partition on the drive.
5. Next, I moved the partition with my new (good) XP install to the front
of the drive and resized it so that it would take up the whole drive.
6. At this point, I tried to boot to the new XP install and it no longer
works. I get past usual first black screen that says "Windows XP" above a
progress bar. I make it past the next screen that says "Welcome" (dark blue
on the top and bottom, light blue in the middle). After that, I get hung up
on a screen that is also dark blue on the top and bottom, light blue in the
middle that says "Microsoft Windows XP" and shows the Windows logo. It just
hangs here forever, I never get to the point where I can log on.

If anyone can tell me anything I can try, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Paul

http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

I was having virus problems with my pc running Windows XP Home edition, so I
wanted to wipe the hard drive and re-load everything from scratch. I was
afraid to just delete the old installation, so what I did was the
following....

1. Originally, my hard drive consisted of one primary (NTFS) partition that
contained my problem XP Home install. I used v-com System/Partition
Commander to make this partition smaller so as to leave free space at the end
of the hard drive.
2. Next, I used Partition Commander to create a new primary partition in
the free space that I had just created.
3. Next, I installed a brand new instance of XP home in this new primary
partition. I got Windows working, re-installed my applications and data, and
it was working great.
4. Next, I decided to get rid of the old partition with the screwed up XP
Home install. Again, I did this in Partition Commander. First, I deleted
the primary partition containing the old XP install. This was the first
partition on the drive.
5. Next, I moved the partition with my new (good) XP install to the front
of the drive and resized it so that it would take up the whole drive.
6. At this point, I tried to boot to the new XP install and it no longer
works. I get past usual first black screen that says "Windows XP" above a
progress bar. I make it past the next screen that says "Welcome" (dark blue
on the top and bottom, light blue in the middle). After that, I get hung up
on a screen that is also dark blue on the top and bottom, light blue in the
middle that says "Microsoft Windows XP" and shows the Windows logo. It just
hangs here forever, I never get to the point where I can log on.

If anyone can tell me anything I can try, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Paul

I suspect you installed Windows in drive D:. When you removed
the old partition, drive D: became drive C:, and Windows did not
like this one bit.

There are a few ways to solve this problem. You could create
a small FAT partition at the start of the drive as a drive place
holder while keeping the Windows partition "active". If you're
an expert with Command Line tools then you could use a
Nordahl boot floppy (www.bootdisk.com) to edit the
registry and change the system drive letter back to D:. It would
be a rough ride, with a high risk of failure.

 

[Peter Foldes]

I tend to agree with Pegasus that you changed your drive assignment. If I was in
your situation I would do a complete reformat and a clean install. Yes you can try
to do a registry edit to change things back but as Pegasus say's it is a high risk
with a high risk of failure. I say a most probable failure and a waste of time.

 

[ByTor]

(e-mail address removed), =?Utf-8?B?UGF1bCBLcmFlbWVy?=
says...


http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

Forgot to mention that if your new install is to any other drive letter
than C fixing the boot record is useless.........Do an entire wipe out &
re-install, you're better off..............