MAJOR PROBLEM

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael
  • Start date Start date
M

Michael

I have a major problem on my Win XP Pro machine.

After installing Avast antivirus and performing a full system scan, I
uninstalled Norton AV. The uninstall required a reboot.

The reboot resulted in a blue screen which indicated that a file had
been deleted without properly shutting down the process or application.
The system did its memory dump and then shut down. Upon reboot, I got
an "unable to load operating system" message.

I put the XP cd in and booted from that. Tried the repair console,
which did nothing. Drive D: (separate physical drive) appears fine.
C: comes up as invalid drive designation.

If I try a reinstall of the O/S, I get a message that partition and
format of C: are unknown and to install windows I must format the c:
drive, wiping out any information that was there.

Is there any way at this point to recover my c: drive or am I screwed?
 
See below.

Michael said:
I have a major problem on my Win XP Pro machine.

After installing Avast antivirus and performing a full system scan, I
uninstalled Norton AV. The uninstall required a reboot.

The reboot resulted in a blue screen which indicated that a file had
been deleted without properly shutting down the process or application.
Click to expand...

Not really. There are many reasons why you can get a BSOD.
Deleting a file without properly shutting down the process is not
one of them.
The system did its memory dump and then shut down. Upon reboot, I got
an "unable to load operating system" message.

I put the XP cd in and booted from that. Tried the repair console,
which did nothing. Drive D: (separate physical drive) appears fine.
C: comes up as invalid drive designation.

If I try a reinstall of the O/S, I get a message that partition and
format of C: are unknown and to install windows I must format the c:
drive, wiping out any information that was there.
Click to expand...

This indicates that your partition table has been damaged.
Is there any way at this point to recover my c: drive or am I screwed?
Click to expand...

You must try to repair your partition table. One of these tools
might help you:

http://www.restorer2000.com/r2k.htm
http://www.hddrecovery.com.au
www.acronis.com (RecoveryExpert)

You have to select one that comes with its own boot disk,
or one that runs off a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com).
 
A reinstall or a repair installation?
PS never a good idea to have multiple AV's installed
 
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