How to repair Windows XP/2000 if you are unable to boot into Windows

I have tried new RAM and it still does not fix the problem. Has anyone else had success with any other fixes to this error message?

I have hired someone to access the hard drive and he was able to get some info off of the drive, although it keeps freezing up. The hard drive is bad and will be replaced. Fortunately, I have a back up for most of what was on the hard drive and I was able to get the important files that were not backed up.

I'm very glad you had a backup! Disk failure is a sad, sad thing.

Just a quick Q...

As my primary harddrive is slowly dying (it's freezing up for a couple of mins with strange sounds, then working ok (no corrupted files so far: ))), I'm going to install w2k on another harddrive to replace it.

I've currently got the new harddrive in another system with a motherboard based on a totally different chipset than what it will be used on.

Can I use the installation I've done on the other system in my main rig, by repairing the installation?
(Would be nice to "just" boot up the new harddrive on my primary system, without having to install w2k once again)

Did anyone understand that?

Yes, this is very possible. About 19 out of 20 times, this will work.

I have done many, many repairs with both XP and 2000 and I have only had perhaps 2 scenarios where a repair did not work after transferring system components.

Of course, it is always best to do a fresh installation though.

Thank you, you've saved me from yet another installation

I've been using the new drive to troubleshoot another system, and put 2k on it 2 days ago. (And I just don't feel like installing it once again if I can avoid it)

So thanks Rick

I used to have a 120 GB Western Digital HD and a 20GB IBM (slave) hooked up to my computer, but just the other day i replaced the 20GB slave with a 3.5 GB slave to hold a few files. Well, right after I replaced it, i turned it on and also saw the "windows did not boot properly screen" When I press start windows normally, or any of the options to start Safe Mode, The XP Home screem begins to appear, then it restarts the computer. This just happens over and over. My question is would the repair that you recomended for the problem above also work for this? Obviously im trying to avoid having to reformat. Also, because my computer only shipped with a certificate of authenticity and no XP cd, will the repair work with another XP cd as long as i used my key? Thanks for the help,
-Baker

Tried that already. It was set on slave, but i also tried it on cable select. I put it back to the setup that was running orginally and it would still not boot. It did the same thing on other computers when it ran as the master :-/. Anyone know if doing the repair installation will help the problem?

Yet another complication...it only gets worse

Ok, so I mentioned the problem i was having before, but I'm going to go through the whole thing since ive had more serious problems since i originally posted.

Ok, so I first posted because when i booted my computer, I got the screen that said "Sorry for the inconvienance, but Windows did not boot properly..." so on, etc. It gives the options to "Start Windows Normally" "Run in Safe Mode" "Safe Mode with networking" and i belive one more option with safe mode. So i tried each and every one of this with the same result. After clicking on it, the XP screen appeared faintly for a fraction of a second before the whole computer restarted and did the whole thing over again. I let it go many times and it just repeated itself the whole time. The setup that I had was a 120 GB Master and a 20 GB slave. The problem occured when i switched the slave with a 3.5 gb slave to hold some files for a friend. Ive had many people offer solutions with jumper cables, bios, etc, but ive tried all that. The jumpers were right, and bios looked normal. So, while trying to find an XP disk from a friend or family member, I connected the 120 GB drive to another computer as a slave. It ran fine as a slave, except for one thing. On startup, a screen would come up saying that Windows wanted to check the drive for errors. Many times I had pressed Enter to skip it, but one time i did not. It deleted a number of "corrupt files" and continued with a normal boot. So, desperate, I decided to try the boot on my normal computer one last time. I used the original setup that used to run properly (120 Master, 20 Slave), but an even larger problem occured: the computer didnt recognize the presence of the hardrives. It tried to boot from my DVD drives, so i restarted and entered bios. Well...bios can't recognize 'em either! I'm in desperate need of help!!!! This situation went from fixable to...."oh $%#@". I'd appreciate ANY ideas. Thanks in advance.

-Baker

Have you run a diagnostic on your drives?

It sounds like one could be bad. This would account for the blue screens and odd behavior perhaps.

No, how do I do that? Im assuming it requires hooking them up as a slave on another computer, but what program should I use?

P.S. Thanks for the quick reply

Try this thread for more information:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7602

I love how new computers come with the recovery consul automatically in the computer and you never even need a CD. I always back up my stuff on zip as i am sure you'll do but the recovery ahs saved my butt many times especially with my kids doing god knows what on the internet. I do that recovery and poof an hour later i am ready to go

Recovery Disks

Well, I'm still lost with my problem, but in response to that: Yes, its wonderful as long as you're aware of the feature before it happens...lol. Oh well...at least Sony offers recovery disks. Unfortunately the one I had claimed it recovered it, but then said windows wasn't fully installed on boot :-/. Looks like its time for a run to the Sony service center so they can't blame it on me when I f' it up trying to fix it myself

What do you think Rick??

Hi. I'm new to this so I hope this post is ok. I followed your instructions to the letter. I was able to boot from the CD. When it got to the Windows setup, it told me the partition wasn't formatted or was damaged and asked if I wanted to reformat. I did. It then installed Win XP completely and rebooted itself to the welcome, etc. I installed my Office 2003 and it was fine. Then I started to install my software for my dialup service (AT &T). It connected to the Internet and went through a couple of screens to the install an existing account. When I put in my username and password, the system locked up. I couldn't do anything, not even move the mouse cursor. I finally had to reboot. And when I did....back to the blue screen again.

Any ideas?? Thanks

You could possibly have a damaged hard drive. Try Rick's suggestion to me: run a diagnostic. Scroll up for more details.

Re: What do you think Rick??

That tells me you almost definitely have a hardware problem. And typically, this kind of problem is caused by either hard drive or memory.

You should run a drive diagnostic on your hard drive. See several replies up for more information.

The certificate will work fine as long as you use the same version of Windows to repair/reinstall as the certificate.
ie: XP Home product keys do not work with XP Pro, or vice versa.

However, product keys for Retail, OEM or manufacturer-specific versions of XP will work with each other fine..
ie. XP Home from a Dell computer will work fine in any other computer since they use the same keys as standard versions of XP Home.
Of course, that computer will need to have its own CD-key or you get into an "activation" pickle.

A couple days ago i got this message when i booted my PC : Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt : \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.
I do not have a recovery CD or ASR disk.
I cannot go in safe mode or back to a previous good config, i always get the same error message.
When i boot from the Win XP CD, installing the VIARAID driver on the way since my HDs are in Raid 0, my PC freezes when i get to the Setup screen where i could select to setup XP again or repair it.
I consulted the Microsoft Knowledge Articles about that problem (like #307545, 308041 and 822705, among others) but it doesn't help in my situation since i cannot start the recovery console or anything else for that matter ! Can anyone help ?
Thanks