Please help! Can't boot my computer after removing partition.

[James]

Hello,

Can someone please help me? I have a desktop pc running Windows XP Home SP2
fully updated. The hard drive is an 80GB IDE with 2 partitions. The first
partition "D" was 5.27 GB and had the Recovery Files on it from HP. The
second partition "C" has the operating system on it. I have been trying to
get rid of that first partition on my hard drive because I no longer needed
the recover files that were on there. HP gives instructions on how to delete
this partition with a Tools CD that you make from your computer. HP writes
that not every computer ships with the software needed to make the disc and
mine did not have the software. So I used Gparted to remove the partition.
Then expanded the operating partition to the full size of the hard drive.
When I went to boot the pc after exiting Gparted I got a black screen
instead of the computer booting. Please keep in mind I do not have the XP CD
mention below. My recovery CDs is bundled software from HP. That will only
put my system back to the out of box state with the 2 partitions. I only
want the one partition.

The black screen has the following information on it:



"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the
cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings and click Next.
3. Click Repair your computer.


If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer
manufacturer for assistance.


File:\NTLDR

Status: 0xc0000225

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is
missing or corrupt."



I am positive the problem is from removing the partition, but that should
not have deleted any necessary files. As I wrote earlier HP gives
instructions on how to remove the partition. I just could not do it the way
HP explains. I believe the problem is because the computer is setup to boot
off the first hard drive second partition. Now all the files are on the
first drive and first partition. I was able to get to the boot.ini file. The
settings were set at rdisk (0) partition (2). I changed the partition
setting to (1) and saved the boot.ini file. I still get the same screen. Is
there something else I need to change? I am the administrator and I don't
have an XP disc so I can't try the instructions given on the black screen. I
could contact HP, but I was hoping someone here could help me.

Any suggestions or help anyone can provide me would be very much
appreciated. I can't boot my computer at all.

Thank you,
James

 

[Robert Pendell]

Hello,

Can someone please help me? I have a desktop pc running Windows XP Home SP2
fully updated. The hard drive is an 80GB IDE with 2 partitions. The first
partition "D" was 5.27 GB and had the Recovery Files on it from HP. The
second partition "C" has the operating system on it. I have been trying to
get rid of that first partition on my hard drive because I no longer needed
the recover files that were on there. HP gives instructions on how to
delete
this partition with a Tools CD that you make from your computer. HP writes
that not every computer ships with the software needed to make the disc and
mine did not have the software. So I used Gparted to remove the partition.
Then expanded the operating partition to the full size of the hard drive.
When I went to boot the pc after exiting Gparted I got a black screen
instead of the computer booting. Please keep in mind I do not have the
XP CD
mention below. My recovery CDs is bundled software from HP. That will only
put my system back to the out of box state with the 2 partitions. I only
want the one partition.

The black screen has the following information on it:



"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the
cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings and click Next.
3. Click Repair your computer.


If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer
manufacturer for assistance.


File:\NTLDR

Status: 0xc0000225

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is
missing or corrupt."



I am positive the problem is from removing the partition, but that should
not have deleted any necessary files. As I wrote earlier HP gives
instructions on how to remove the partition. I just could not do it the way
HP explains. I believe the problem is because the computer is setup to boot
off the first hard drive second partition. Now all the files are on the
first drive and first partition. I was able to get to the boot.ini file.
The
settings were set at rdisk (0) partition (2). I changed the partition
setting to (1) and saved the boot.ini file. I still get the same screen. Is
there something else I need to change? I am the administrator and I don't
have an XP disc so I can't try the instructions given on the black
screen. I
could contact HP, but I was hoping someone here could help me.

Any suggestions or help anyone can provide me would be very much
appreciated. I can't boot my computer at all.

Thank you,
James

Because you changed the partition layout now your boot.ini file is
pointing to the wrong partition. You will either need to modify that
file (you can use linux) and change partition(2) to partition(1) or you
can boot using your Windows XP cd and run FIXBOOT from the recovery
console. Both methods should take care of it for you.

--
Robert Pendell
(e-mail address removed)

"A perfect world is one of chaos."

Thawte Web of Trust Notary
CAcert Assurer

 

[James]

Hello Robert,

Thank you so much for responding to my help plea. I already changed the
Partition to (1) in the boot.ini file and I still have the same problem. I
also don't have a Windows XP CD because the Recovery disc set I have is a
bundled software from the manufacture. If I use those CDs it will erase my
drive and put the partition back. I don't want to do that. I mentioned both
these things in my question. If you have any other ideas please pass them
on. I really would like to get this straightened out without having to put
the partition back.

Thanks again,
James

 

[beamish]

Hello,
Know nothing about your problem.
May I suggest, find someone with a generic oem WindowsXP SP2 disc to borrow
(perhaps a local computer repairshop) and if accepted by your unit try the
repairs suggested by Robert Pendell. Do not know if this will work.
take care.
beamish.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hello,

Can someone please help me? I have a desktop pc running Windows XP Home
SP2
fully updated. The hard drive is an 80GB IDE with 2 partitions. The first
partition "D" was 5.27 GB and had the Recovery Files on it from HP. The
second partition "C" has the operating system on it. I have been trying to
get rid of that first partition on my hard drive because I no longer
needed
the recover files that were on there. HP gives instructions on how to
delete
this partition with a Tools CD that you make from your computer. HP writes
that not every computer ships with the software needed to make the disc
and
mine did not have the software. So I used Gparted to remove the partition.
Then expanded the operating partition to the full size of the hard drive.
When I went to boot the pc after exiting Gparted I got a black screen
instead of the computer booting. Please keep in mind I do not have the XP
CD
mention below. My recovery CDs is bundled software from HP. That will only
put my system back to the out of box state with the 2 partitions. I only
want the one partition.

The black screen has the following information on it:



"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be
the
cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language settings and click Next.
3. Click Repair your computer.


If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or
computer
manufacturer for assistance.


File:\NTLDR

Status: 0xc0000225

Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is
missing or corrupt."



I am positive the problem is from removing the partition, but that should
not have deleted any necessary files. As I wrote earlier HP gives
instructions on how to remove the partition. I just could not do it the
way
HP explains. I believe the problem is because the computer is setup to
boot
off the first hard drive second partition. Now all the files are on the
first drive and first partition. I was able to get to the boot.ini file.
The
settings were set at rdisk (0) partition (2). I changed the partition
setting to (1) and saved the boot.ini file. I still get the same screen.
Is
there something else I need to change? I am the administrator and I don't
have an XP disc so I can't try the instructions given on the black screen.
I
could contact HP, but I was hoping someone here could help me.

Any suggestions or help anyone can provide me would be very much
appreciated. I can't boot my computer at all.

Thank you,
James

Let's find out if it's only the boot environment that's damaged or if
Windows itself is corrupted. You can do it like so:
- Find a WinXP machine with a floppy disk drive and a CD burner.
- Format the floppy disk.
- Copy thes hidden files to the floppy disk:
* c:\ntdetect.com
* c:\ntldr
* c:\boot.ini
- Modify a:\boot.ini so that you have six lines that look like so:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="2 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="3 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="4 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="5 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="6 Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
- Using the CD burner, create a boot CD off this floppy disk.
Use a CD/RW in case you get it wrong.
- Set the BIOS of your own machine so that it uses the
CD drive as its primary boot device.
- Boot your machine with this CD, trying each of the six options.
- Report the results here.

 

[James]

Hello,

Thank you so much for the instructions you have given me. I really
appreciate you taking the time to help me out. I will do as you wrote and
report back how I make out.

Please keep in mind it will take me a few days to find someone with XP plus
have a CD writer and a floppy drive. So you won't see the results for a
little while.

Thanks again,
James

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If push comes to shove then you might have to ask your friendly
computer dealer for an old floppy disk drive that you could then
connect to your own PC, thus removing the need for a CD burner.
The rest of my instructions would remain the same.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

By expanding the partition containing the boot files (ntldr, boot.ini
and ntdetect.com), the partition's boot sector may no longer be
able to find ntldr. Perhaps "fixboot" would be in order. That
partition may also not be set to "active", so the MBR cannot find
the active partition. (There is some indication that in the case of
only one Primary partition on the boot disk, the MBR is smart
enough to assume that the sole Primay partition is "active", but
it may not be that smart.)
Here are a couple references for background:
The Recovery Console Commands -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
The Active Partition -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228004

*TimDaniels*

 

[James]

Hello,

I believe I should be able to fix my computer with some more of your help.
I made the boot disk with the modified boot.ini file as you wrote it and I
copied the files you told me to it. Let me tell you what else I did because
I don't think I will need this disk.

I have a spare IDE hard drive for my computer that I want to setup dual
booting with Vista on my computer after I get XP fixed. It has been
formatted with one partition. So neither of us get confused on the disk I am
talking about I will call them by their factory names. The one I removed the
partition on and I am trying to get to boot to XP is a Western Digital
drive. The spare drive I had is a Seagate, both are 80GB.

I installed the Seagate in my computer and made it a slave to the Western
Digital. I then booted to Dos and cloned the Western Digital XP disk to the
empty Seagate drive. I removed the Western Digital disk and set the Seagate
as the primary. I then used the HP system CDs to do a safe Recovery. I found
the safe Recovery does not format the drive or change the partitions. It is
not suppose to delete all the files the user put on there. I have to
disagree with that part though.

By doing the above I got my computer to boot XP off of the Seagate drive
with the only partition being "C". I actually used this computer to make the
boot disk. I made 2 of them. One I made and left the boot.ini file alone.
The other boot disk I made I modified the boot.ini as you instructed.
Although I have the Seagate drive booted and running XP I would like to fix
the Western Digital drive and go back to that one. The Seagate is like a
Frankenstein Monster. It is back to like out of the box state, but with
having my files on it. None of the programs I added to the computer will run
now either. It is running very slow too. So I am hoping you can tell me what
to copy off of the Seagate to the Western Digital so I can boot the WD drive
without changing anything else. I am hoping to avoid what happen to the
Seagate drive happening to the WD. That is why I used a spare hard drive and
not the WD drive.

Here is what the Boot.ini file looks like on the Seagate drive:

"[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect"

Another thing; the Seagate says it is XP Home Sp1 and the Western Digital
is XP Home Sp2 and was fully up to date before I could not boot it anymore.
Can I just copy the boot.ini file from the Seagate to the WD along with the
other files you told me to copy to boot disk? Will that fix the boot trouble
on the WD drive? I didn't do anything to the WD drive yet. I wanted to write
you first. If I have not given you enough information let me know. I am
hoping I am at a spot where I can easily fix the WD drive.

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

James

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

This will take some time to digest. I'll try to respond later on.

Hello,

I believe I should be able to fix my computer with some more of your help.
I made the boot disk with the modified boot.ini file as you wrote it and I
copied the files you told me to it. Let me tell you what else I did
because I don't think I will need this disk.

I have a spare IDE hard drive for my computer that I want to setup dual
booting with Vista on my computer after I get XP fixed. It has been
formatted with one partition. So neither of us get confused on the disk I
am talking about I will call them by their factory names. The one I
removed the partition on and I am trying to get to boot to XP is a Western
Digital drive. The spare drive I had is a Seagate, both are 80GB.

I installed the Seagate in my computer and made it a slave to the Western
Digital. I then booted to Dos and cloned the Western Digital XP disk to
the empty Seagate drive. I removed the Western Digital disk and set the
Seagate as the primary. I then used the HP system CDs to do a safe
Recovery. I found the safe Recovery does not format the drive or change
the partitions. It is not suppose to delete all the files the user put on
there. I have to disagree with that part though.

By doing the above I got my computer to boot XP off of the Seagate drive
with the only partition being "C". I actually used this computer to make
the boot disk. I made 2 of them. One I made and left the boot.ini file
alone. The other boot disk I made I modified the boot.ini as you
instructed. Although I have the Seagate drive booted and running XP I
would like to fix the Western Digital drive and go back to that one. The
Seagate is like a Frankenstein Monster. It is back to like out of the box
state, but with having my files on it. None of the programs I added to the
computer will run now either. It is running very slow too. So I am hoping
you can tell me what to copy off of the Seagate to the Western Digital so
I can boot the WD drive without changing anything else. I am hoping to
avoid what happen to the Seagate drive happening to the WD. That is why I
used a spare hard drive and not the WD drive.

Here is what the Boot.ini file looks like on the Seagate drive:

"[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect"

Another thing; the Seagate says it is XP Home Sp1 and the Western Digital
is XP Home Sp2 and was fully up to date before I could not boot it
anymore. Can I just copy the boot.ini file from the Seagate to the WD
along with the other files you told me to copy to boot disk? Will that fix
the boot trouble on the WD drive? I didn't do anything to the WD drive
yet. I wanted to write you first. If I have not given you enough
information let me know. I am hoping I am at a spot where I can easily fix
the WD drive.

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

James

If push comes to shove then you might have to ask your friendly
computer dealer for an old floppy disk drive that you could then
connect to your own PC, thus removing the need for a CD burner.
The rest of my instructions would remain the same.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

Hello,

I believe I should be able to fix my computer with some more of your help.
I made the boot disk with the modified boot.ini file as you wrote it and I
copied the files you told me to it. Let me tell you what else I did
because I don't think I will need this disk.

I have a spare IDE hard drive for my computer that I want to setup dual
booting with Vista on my computer after I get XP fixed. It has been
formatted with one partition. So neither of us get confused on the disk I
am talking about I will call them by their factory names. The one I
removed the partition on and I am trying to get to boot to XP is a Western
Digital drive. The spare drive I had is a Seagate, both are 80GB.

I installed the Seagate in my computer and made it a slave to the Western
Digital. I then booted to Dos and cloned the Western Digital XP disk to
the empty Seagate drive.

*** What exactly do you mean with "clone"? How did you do this?

I removed the Western Digital disk and set the Seagate as the primary. I
then used the HP system CDs to do a safe Recovery. I found the safe
Recovery does not format the drive or change the partitions. It is not
suppose to delete all the files the user put on there. I have to disagree
with that part though.

*** Some recovery CDs will clean the slate, others won't.
*** If I understand you correctly then the Seagate disk the result
*** a) of the "cloning" effort and
*** b) of the Safe Recovery action.

By doing the above I got my computer to boot XP off of the Seagate drive
with the only partition being "C". I actually used this computer to make
the boot disk. I made 2 of them. One I made and left the boot.ini file
alone. The other boot disk I made I modified the boot.ini as you
instructed.
Although I have the Seagate drive booted and running XP I would like to
fix the Western Digital drive and go back to that one. The Seagate is like
a Frankenstein Monster. It is back to like out of the box state, but with
having my files on it. None of the programs I added to the computer will
run now either.

*** What happens when you try?

It is running very slow too. So I am hoping you can tell me what to copy
off of the Seagate to the Western Digital so I can boot the WD drive
without changing anything else. I am hoping to avoid what happen to the
Seagate drive happening to the WD. That is why I used a spare hard drive
and not the WD drive.

*** Good thinking!

Here is what the Boot.ini file looks like on the Seagate drive:

"[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect"

Another thing; the Seagate says it is XP Home Sp1 and the Western Digital
is XP Home Sp2 and was fully up to date before I could not boot it
anymore.

*** This is the result of the Safe Recovery step.

Can I just copy the boot.ini file from the Seagate to the WD along with
the other files you told me to copy to boot disk? Will that fix the boot
trouble on the WD drive? I didn't do anything to the WD drive yet. I
wanted to write you first. If I have not given you enough information let
me know. I am hoping I am at a spot where I can easily fix the WD drive.

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

James

*** My initial suggestion was aimed an finding out if Windows
*** is intact or damaged. This requires booting with a boot
*** diskette or CD. The steps you have taken so far simply
*** prove that the Safe Recovery process works.

 

[James]

Sorry I am taking so long to write back to you. I have been working on that
dumb computer every day (all day) and all night. I finally got it to boot on
it's own and I have it dual booting with Vista on the spare drive. That was
another ordeal all together. Actually adding Vista to the spare drive is how
I finally got the XP drive to boot.

The funniest thing I ran into is the Floppy disk would boot the XP drive
using the following command; "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1
Microsoft Windows XP Home" /fastdetect. So I copied the files off of the
floppy disk to the hard drive, but it still would not boot. I kept getting
that same black window. I put in the floppy and it would boot. I remembered
reading in this news group before that if you install Vista in a dual boot
situation it will set the computer up to boot to both operating systems. I
figured since I had the DVD and was going to do a dual boot anyway why not
try. Install Vista totally fixed my problem. it was great!

Thanks again for everyone's help. I really appreciate it. I hope you are
all having a great weekend.

James

See below.

Hello,

I believe I should be able to fix my computer with some more of your
help. I made the boot disk with the modified boot.ini file as you wrote
it and I copied the files you told me to it. Let me tell you what else I
did because I don't think I will need this disk.

I have a spare IDE hard drive for my computer that I want to setup dual
booting with Vista on my computer after I get XP fixed. It has been
formatted with one partition. So neither of us get confused on the disk I
am talking about I will call them by their factory names. The one I
removed the partition on and I am trying to get to boot to XP is a
Western Digital drive. The spare drive I had is a Seagate, both are 80GB.

I installed the Seagate in my computer and made it a slave to the Western
Digital. I then booted to Dos and cloned the Western Digital XP disk to
the empty Seagate drive.

*** What exactly do you mean with "clone"? How did you do this?

I removed the Western Digital disk and set the Seagate as the primary. I
then used the HP system CDs to do a safe Recovery. I found the safe
Recovery does not format the drive or change the partitions. It is not
suppose to delete all the files the user put on there. I have to disagree
with that part though.

*** Some recovery CDs will clean the slate, others won't.
*** If I understand you correctly then the Seagate disk the result
*** a) of the "cloning" effort and
*** b) of the Safe Recovery action.

By doing the above I got my computer to boot XP off of the Seagate drive
with the only partition being "C". I actually used this computer to make
the boot disk. I made 2 of them. One I made and left the boot.ini file
alone. The other boot disk I made I modified the boot.ini as you
instructed.
Although I have the Seagate drive booted and running XP I would like to
fix the Western Digital drive and go back to that one. The Seagate is
like a Frankenstein Monster. It is back to like out of the box state, but
with having my files on it. None of the programs I added to the computer
will run now either.

*** What happens when you try?

It is running very slow too. So I am hoping you can tell me what to copy
off of the Seagate to the Western Digital so I can boot the WD drive
without changing anything else. I am hoping to avoid what happen to the
Seagate drive happening to the WD. That is why I used a spare hard drive
and not the WD drive.

*** Good thinking!

Here is what the Boot.ini file looks like on the Seagate drive:

"[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 Home
Edition" /fastdetect"

Another thing; the Seagate says it is XP Home Sp1 and the Western Digital
is XP Home Sp2 and was fully up to date before I could not boot it
anymore.

*** This is the result of the Safe Recovery step.

Can I just copy the boot.ini file from the Seagate to the WD along with
the other files you told me to copy to boot disk? Will that fix the boot
trouble on the WD drive? I didn't do anything to the WD drive yet. I
wanted to write you first. If I have not given you enough information let
me know. I am hoping I am at a spot where I can easily fix the WD drive.

Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

James

*** My initial suggestion was aimed an finding out if Windows
*** is intact or damaged. This requires booting with a boot
*** diskette or CD. The steps you have taken so far simply
*** prove that the Safe Recovery process works.