Repair does not recognize existing OS

[Matt McFarlane]

What does the XP repair feature look for to determine the existence of XP.
I have a computer which will not boot and am trying to run a repair.
However after accepting the license agreement I receive a list of partitions
rather than showing the installed OS I want to repair. I have copied the
ntdetect.com and ntldr files from the hard drive back in place, but that is
apparently not all it wants.

Thanks.

matt...

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Hi Matt,

In addition to ntdetect.com and ntldr files, it looks for the boot.ini file
to determine the existence of XP. Have a look at this information (courtesy
of Michael Stevens):
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#warning2

If you cannot perform the repair install, you might want to try the steps in
this MSKB article, "How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents
Windows XP from starting":
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=307545



Regards,

 

[Rick]

When you were trying to boot up, were you getting an
error message saying "Error Loading OS"?

 

[Matt McFarlane]

No, it would just stop at a black screen. If trying safe mode it would stop
after loading several drivers. I believe agp440 was the last one. I tried
the suggestion of rebuilding the boot.ini as well, but that didn't work.
Gave in and reinstalled clean OS. It will be better in the long run, but
more difficult for the user who doesn't have all their media.

Thanks.

matt...