Where did XP go??

[Michael]

Please help?!

PC Locked up running XP Prof. Rebooted after long wait,
machine now starts but reboots after 30seconds of the
splash screen. Won't start up in Safe Mode or Last Known
Good Configuration etc.

...and when I run Console, it can't find my instance of
WindowsXP to log in to, and hence I can't repair it. On
top of all this, even though my directories seem intact,
including the Windows directory, I can't access them
(this is because Console or the XP Setup can't find my
windows instance and won't log on)..

Anyone any clue whatsoever??

 

[francis gérard]

Please help?!

PC Locked up running XP Prof. Rebooted after long wait,
machine now starts but reboots after 30seconds of the
splash screen. Won't start up in Safe Mode or Last Known
Good Configuration etc.

..and when I run Console, it can't find my instance of
WindowsXP to log in to, and hence I can't repair it. On
top of all this, even though my directories seem intact,
including the Windows directory, I can't access them
(this is because Console or the XP Setup can't find my
windows instance and won't log on)..

you say that you are unable to use the recovery console to logon to the
default windows partition, but you also say the directories, including
Windows, seem intact. how did you determine this?

 

[Alex Nichol]

..and when I run Console, it can't find my instance of
WindowsXP to log in to, and hence I can't repair it. On
top of all this, even though my directories seem intact,
including the Windows directory, I can't access them
(this is because Console or the XP Setup can't find my
windows instance and won't log on)..

Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard Disk. Boot the XP CD and, instead
of Setup, take the immediate R for Repair. Assume any password
requested is blank, and TAB over.

Start with
chkdsk /f c:
to see if it is a corrupted hard disk.

Then rebuild the boot files by giving

COPY D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\ntdetect.com
COPY D:\i386\ntldr C:\ntldr
ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
DEL C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild