Why Won't Windows Boot?

[S.Sengupta]

You may try 'TestDisk' it's is a powerful free data recovery utility.It
was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

 

[Guest]

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry, until I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair) will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and most of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux), and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows et. al.
from scratch)?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry, until I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair) will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and most of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux), and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows et. al.
from scratch)?

If your system partition is still intact then you should try to
boot the machine with a WinXP boot diskette:
- Format a floppy disk on some WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

Does it boot?

 

[Guest]

I was wondering about creating a boot disk, the only problem being that
neither of the computers I'm dealing with have floppy drives. Is there any
way I could burn a boot CD instead?

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry, until I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair) will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and most of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux), and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows et. al.
from scratch)?

If your system partition is still intact then you should try to
boot the machine with a WinXP boot diskette:
- Format a floppy disk on some WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

Does it boot?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Yes - by having a boot disk inserted in your floppy drive
while burning the boot CD! Alternatively ask a friend to
burn one for you.

If you are serious about PC maintenance then you must
have a floppy disk drive. They cost very little.

I was wondering about creating a boot disk, the only problem being that
neither of the computers I'm dealing with have floppy drives. Is there any
way I could burn a boot CD instead?

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't

touching
the

boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry,

until
I

saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair) will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and

most
of

its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing

linux),
and

having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows

et.
al.

from scratch)?

If your system partition is still intact then you should try to
boot the machine with a WinXP boot diskette:
- Format a floppy disk on some WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

Does it boot?

 

[Guest]

Sorry, what's the process for burning a boot CD? The computer that still runs
that I have access to isn't mine, and so isn't as well equipt as I'd like
(i.e. OEM "lite" version of the CD burning software, no floppy drive, etc.
etc.). As for the computer that isn't running, I would install a floppy drive
if there was space in the case for it. It's a refurbished Compaq, and the
only reason I bought it was because the price was right and I desperately
needed a "new" (i.e. faster than P III) computer at the time. As I'm
discovering over and over again, sometimes the cheapest option isn't always
the best...

Yes - by having a boot disk inserted in your floppy drive
while burning the boot CD! Alternatively ask a friend to
burn one for you.

If you are serious about PC maintenance then you must
have a floppy disk drive. They cost very little.

I was wondering about creating a boot disk, the only problem being that
neither of the computers I'm dealing with have floppy drives. Is there any
way I could burn a boot CD instead?

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets
burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching
the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry, until
I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my
screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair)
will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot
loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there
either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and most
of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux),
and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows et.
al.
from scratch)?

If your system partition is still intact then you should try to
boot the machine with a WinXP boot diskette:
- Format a floppy disk on some WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

Does it boot?

 

[Guest]

Okay, so I just found a USB Floppy Drive kicking around, and it turns out my
BIOS is capable of handling it for boot purposes. So I followed your
instructions (both trying to boot from partition one like you said as well as
partition three, which is where C: and my Windows installation currently maps
to according to the MAP command in the recovery console booting from the
Windows install disc) and all that came up was the same blinking cursor that
I get when I try to boot Windows normally. I'm going to try S.Sengupta's idea
of trying out TestDisk as soon as I have access to a CD burning that will
burn ISO images. In the mean time, any other thoughts?

Yes - by having a boot disk inserted in your floppy drive
while burning the boot CD! Alternatively ask a friend to
burn one for you.

If you are serious about PC maintenance then you must
have a floppy disk drive. They cost very little.

I was wondering about creating a boot disk, the only problem being that
neither of the computers I'm dealing with have floppy drives. Is there any
way I could burn a boot CD instead?

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets
burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching
the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry, until
I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my
screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair)
will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot
loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there
either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and most
of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux),
and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows et.
al.
from scratch)?

If your system partition is still intact then you should try to
boot the machine with a WinXP boot diskette:
- Format a floppy disk on some WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

Does it boot?

 

[Guest]

Okay, this is odd, just after a sent my last message, the screen changed from
the blinking cursor to the folowing:"

Windows could not start because the following file is missing
or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

"This has me really confused, because it only did this on the boot disk set
to go to Partition 1, which is not where the recovery console says my
operating system is (it seems to think C: is partition 3). Oddly enough,
according to the recovery console, Partition 1 should be an empty 20GB FAT32
Partition. Now what?

-Russ

Yes - by having a boot disk inserted in your floppy drive
while burning the boot CD! Alternatively ask a friend to
burn one for you.

If you are serious about PC maintenance then you must
have a floppy disk drive. They cost very little.

I was wondering about creating a boot disk, the only problem being that
neither of the computers I'm dealing with have floppy drives. Is there any
way I could burn a boot CD instead?

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets
burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching
the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry, until
I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my
screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair)
will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot
loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there
either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and most
of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux),
and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows et.
al.
from scratch)?

If your system partition is still intact then you should try to
boot the machine with a WinXP boot diskette:
- Format a floppy disk on some WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

Does it boot?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You should try to vary the numbers in c:\boot.ini, by
selecting x=1, 2 or 3 in "partition(x)".

You should also determine if Windows is still on your
hard disk. Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk
from www.bootdisk.com, then run this command,
available from www.sysinternals.com:

ntfsdos /L:KLM

Now have a look what's on drives K:, L: and M;

Okay, this is odd, just after a sent my last message, the screen changed from
the blinking cursor to the folowing:"

Windows could not start because the following file is missing
or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

"This has me really confused, because it only did this on the boot disk set
to go to Partition 1, which is not where the recovery console says my
operating system is (it seems to think C: is partition 3). Oddly enough,
according to the recovery console, Partition 1 should be an empty 20GB FAT32
Partition. Now what?

-Russ

Yes - by having a boot disk inserted in your floppy drive
while burning the boot CD! Alternatively ask a friend to
burn one for you.

If you are serious about PC maintenance then you must
have a floppy disk drive. They cost very little.

I was wondering about creating a boot disk, the only problem being that
neither of the computers I'm dealing with have floppy drives. Is there any
way I could burn a boot CD instead?

:


This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets
burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching
the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was

hunky-dorry,
until

I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of

where
the

boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started

moving
around

the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my
screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair)
will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot
loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there
either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it

into
a

dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg

(and
most

of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux),
and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little

help.
Any

suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling

Windows
et.

al.
from scratch)?

If your system partition is still intact then you should try to
boot the machine with a WinXP boot diskette:
- Format a floppy disk on some WinXP/2000 PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy

Does it boot?

 

[Plato]

Sorry, what's the process for burning a boot CD? The computer that still runs

It's in the docs for you cdburning program. Easy as Pie.

 

[Guest]

Alright, so, I ran that tool a couple of times, it fixed whatever my
partition utility screwed up, and Windows is working better than it did
before I crashed the thing. I will definitely have to hold onto this program,
it's for sure a keeper (I'm using the version included on the "Ultimate Boot
CD"). Thanks for the help!

-Russ

You may try 'TestDisk' it's is a powerful free data recovery utility.It
was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

regards,
S.Sengupta[MS-MVP]

This is, apparently, what happens when one plays with fire and gets burned:

I was doing some repartitioning of my hard drive, but I wasn't touching the
boot partition, only the other ones, and everything was hunky-dorry, until I
saw the 5 or so GBs on my disk that were lying fallow because of where the
boot partition was sitting. Basically, I got greedy, started moving around
the boot partition, and next thing I know, the standard Windows boot-up
screen has been replaced by a blinking cursor in the top-left of my screen,
and nothing on the Windows XP CD (neither Recovery Console nor Repair) will
make it go away. I even tried installing Linux to try and use its boot loader
to force-boot Windows in a dual-boot environment, but no luck there either.
The linux boot-loader comes up, I select Windows XP Profession and there's
that blinking cursor again. (Thankfully I was planning to turn it into a
dual-boot system at some point anyway). So, having tried bootcfg (and most of
its options), fixboot, and fixmbr (although not since installing linux), and
having nothing work, I figured it was time I asked for a little help. Any
suggestions (preferably ones that don't include reinstalling Windows et. al.
from scratch)?