Dustin--
I wish I could come up with a solution to get you to Windows, but I don't
know the exact cause. There are of course repairs you can make when you
can't boot up to Windows with the Recovery Console, but you have to have an
idea of and good reason for what you're targeting to repair with the RC or
you may do more harm. *If you could get to Windows, I'd want you to check
your drivers and possibly update them if needed and do a viral scan.* I
just meant that fortunately the difficult problem of boot sector viruses is
relatively rare compared with BSODs due to drive problems since hardware
compatibilities in general and driver problems specifically probably account
for 85% of BSODs or "stop errors." The error and failure to repair if you
followed the steps in the Inplace Upgrade/Repair install suggests you may
have damaged your partitions in some way and booting to windows may not be
possible.
The catch 22 of not being able to get to Windows is that if you could, you
could freeze your BSOD so you could read it by Windows key+Pause Break
Key>Advanced tab>Startup and Recovery Settings>Take Check out of Automatic
Start under System Failure.
I appreciate the wisdom in the caveat against an in place upgrade of
Q315341, but they don't address the question of what you do to get up to
Windows when your options are diminishing do they? You could deal with a
3rd party device driver from Windows and maybe the assumption of the KB is
that you're able to get up to Windows.
See:
Doug Knox: How Do I Do a Repair Install?
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_repair_install.htm
You could try repairing the master boot record by accessing the Recovery
Console and using the fixmbr command from the Recovery console, but it would
be shotgunning to an extent. One potentially worthwhile and relatively
harmless move you can make is to run a chkdsk /r from the Recovery Console.
You can also disable a service or device from the recovery console that may
be causing the problem, but to do this you'd have to have an educated guess
as to what device that might be. Have you installed any new hardware
recently? If you had it or its driver would be suspect.
Error Message: Windows Could Not Start Because of a Computer Disk Hardware
Configuration Problem
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314477&Product=winxp
How to Disable a Service or Device that Prevents Windows from Starting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310602&Product=winxp
*Boot Discs to Get You to Windows*
You could also try to make boot discs for XP from the computer you're using.
http://www.bootdisk.com/
How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable
to Start Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314079&Product=winxp
HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305595&Product=winxp
Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310994
See these, particularly the first one. The other two are background on the
Recovery Console, and show you how to boot into the Recovery Console from
the XP-CDROM. You will have to go to the bios and make sure that the boot
order allows you to boot from the CD-ROM. The Recovery Console retains 13 of
the previous old dos commands and has other commands for fixing your OS when
you can't boot to it.
Computer Stops Responding with a Black Screen When You Start Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314503&Product=winxp
Support WebCast: Microsoft Windows XP: Exploring Boot Options and Recovery
Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324465&Product=winxp
HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&Product=winxp
Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314058&Product=winxp
Error Message When You Run fixmbr Command
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;266745
hth,
Chad Harris
___________________________________________________________________________________
Dustin said:
I have tried
- Safe Mode
- Safe Mode w/ Comannand Prompt
- Last Good Config
None work. I tried with both profiles
You say its probaly caused by a hardware driver problem and
one of your reccomendations is to to a re install but
Q315341 says "Do not use a repair or in-place upgrade if
you suspect a problem with a non-Microsoft device and the
latest device drivers are currently installed for the device."
Hmm...
I'm trying the reinstall and repair but it doenst think
Windows is on the hard drive.
All it says it
38163 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
C: Partition1 [Unknown] 38162 MB (38162 MB) Free.
I didnt format the C: drive but it seems like it is. What
is wrong here?
-----Original Message-----
I have Windows XP Home Edition SP1 on one of my computers
and it was working just fine yesterday and today it wont
boot into Windows.
The computer, itself, boots and passes the POST but once
that is over and it gets on to booting Windows, I see the
Windows screen for like a second, then a BSOD for a
fraction of a second and then, click, it reboots. If I try
to boot it again the same sequence of events happen. I
think I might have a boot sector virus.
I have two boot profiles, one for regular computing and
another optimised for gaming.
Oh, I almost forgot, I bought and installed a new video
card a few days ago. It is a PNY Verto nVidia GeForce FX
5200 AGP (What a long name....). I don't think that is the
problem though because it worked just fine yesterday.
I really don't know how to solve this problem. I had to
post this message on my old laptop. I really want to get my
regular computer up and running again soon because it can
do things my laptop isn't capable of.
I don't really want to reinstall Windows because I do not
want to end up reinstalling my programs and losing
un-replacable files. I have tried using the Recover Console
on the XP CD and have tried rewriting the MBR. Didn't work.
Any help would be great.
.
