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

Good day,

I'm having trouble loggin into windows XP Home Edition. Safe mode does the same like all the other options and the pc automaticly reboots before the logon screen appears. It ends with some 3 or 4 lines of white text on a bleu background but these are only visable for not even a sec, so impossible to read even one letter written.

I now am trying to work my way through the repair method but running into troubble as I don't get the screens you are mentionning

After booting from CD : I press enter as indicated (to setup)
Then: I can press F8 as indicated
BUT : Then I don't get the screen with option to press R, instead I get a screen with following options :
.....
press enter to install XP on the selected partition
or press C if you want to make a partition in the non-partitionned section
or press D if you want to delete the selected partition
or press F3 to quit

So, here I quitted because of not sure which option to choose without doing any further damage.

Then I rebooted the pc and tried to press the R button instead of Enter (to setup), which brought me to a dos-like screen on which I didn't know again what to do...

I hope somebody can put me on the right track
Many thanks ahead!!
Parossi

Rick,thank you very much.

Good day,

I'm having trouble loggin into windows XP Home Edition. Safe mode does the same like all the other options and the pc automaticly reboots before the logon screen appears. It ends with some 3 or 4 lines of white text on a bleu background but these are only visable for not even a sec, so impossible to read even one letter written.

I now am trying to work my way through the repair method but running into troubble as I don't get the screens you are mentionning

After booting from CD : I press enter as indicated (to setup)
Then: I can press F8 as indicated
BUT : Then I don't get the screen with option to press R, instead I get a screen with following options :
.....
press enter to install XP on the selected partition
or press C if you want to make a partition in the non-partitionned section
or press D if you want to delete the selected partition
or press F3 to quit

So, here I quitted because of not sure which option to choose without doing any further damage.

Then I rebooted the pc and tried to press the R button instead of Enter (to setup), which brought me to a dos-like screen on which I didn't know again what to do...

I hope somebody can put me on the right track
Many thanks ahead!!
Parossi


The blue screen you see is most likely a general protection fault. It's also called the blue screen of death. If you could get into windows you could change the system settings to not automatically reboot when an error occurs. This is helpfull in that you can actually see the error that comes up, and that is sometimes troubleshootable.

On to more useful information.

Some pre-built machines have special recovery disks. The manufacturer actually modifies the install disk to remove certain options such as repair, and of course add their splash logos everywhere possible. They would, in this instance, provide you with a recovery cd. Dell did this for a short while, and I think gateway may have as well. Are you using a regular store bought Windows disk?

Sorry if i'm being redundant here but:

Another option, if you can afford it, is to perform a fresh install of windows on a new hard drive. You can use your previous drive as a secondary and get all the files off of it you need. Then if necessary you can do the reverse if you want your previous drive back as primary.

This is obviously only an option if you only need individual files from your original HDD. One can't normally easily copy installed applications.

Normally my issue with repair operations is that by the time one of my machines needs a repair, it is more than likely to need a clean install. A repair can often get your machine running, but it doesn't always completely remove the problem that caused the crash in the first place. There's no guarantee that once you repair, and you open a few programs that Window's all-too-precious memory space will be intruded upon and some system files will get corrupted during reboot.

Greetings,

I am having a similiar problem, but with yet another twist. I have an Asus P5P800 Motherboard w/ 3.4 Ghz P4 processor, and a GB of Kingston PC 3200. I have a 60 GB hard drive that is now formatted thanks to the XP Installation CD, but here is where the twist kicks in. The install appears to be going along smoothly, but after setting up files on the hard drive, the install states that it needs to reboot before it can continue. Upon rebooting, the install begins all over again. This happens regardless of having the CD ROM set as the primary boot device, or the hard drive set as primary. It is stuck in an endless install/boot cycle.

I have tried everything, and I am at my wits end. This forum is my last hope.

Thx.

Have you simply taken the CD out of the drive? It should correctly boot from HDD if you have switched it, but just take the CD out and it should be ok.

BTW
:wave:Welcome to TechSpot:wave:

Yes, I've tried every combination of possibilities that I can think of. If I remove the CD I get this message on a black screen.

Reboot and Select propre Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

I've tried changing boot priority from hard drive, to cd drive w/ no change.

I've tried it with quick boot enabled and disabled.

I've tried it with Plug and Play OS on and off.

So frustrating.

Hello,

I am new to this forum and would like to say that all the information i've read on this thread thus far has been a huge help!

I have a Dell Inspirion 1100 Laptop and I am running WinXP Home SP1. I bought a photo printer from HP and couldn't install any of the software that came with it. Well i went to their home page and had to install a patch for it to work. After I installed the patch things started to go crazy on the desktop. Folders started appearing along with other icons randomly on the desktop. I tried the reboot and the OS got stuck at the logo screen. I can't even reboot in safe mode.

I called HP and Dell and they didn't do anything. I read Rick's article, which i might add was done very well, and it offered hope. One of my concerns is if I proceed with everything that Rick has mentioned, is there chance of losing data? I have a lot of information that I cannot possibly lose. I know there is nothing wrong with the hardware because the computer is less than a year old and didn't go awry until I installed that patch from HP.

Please if anyone can offer any support on this, it would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. If all goes well after everything is said and done, is there any way of knowing or pin-pointing what caused this?

Thanks again.

Here's my predicament...I tried to re-image my laptop with the system recovery disks and it keeps getting fried halfway through. Always shoots back a Critical error. Someone told me it had something to do with the holding onto a partition image (1 vs 2) when it got reimaged a while back becasue of a virus. Now, I have to figure out how to run a disk check to free this up (was going to use delpart.exe). BUT I don't have a floppy drive. How can I boot this withOUT a floppy using only a CD given to me by the hardware manufacturer?

After I installed the patch things started to go crazy on the desktop. Folders started appearing along with other icons randomly on the desktop. I tried the reboot and the OS got stuck at the logo screen. I can't even reboot in safe mode.
Sounds to me like a problem with Windows Explorer, maybe the patch installed a context menu that isn't compatible with that version of Windows Explorer?

One of my concerns is if I proceed with everything that Rick has mentioned, is there chance of losing data? I have a lot of information that I cannot possibly lose.
I've done this kind of repairs sometimes and never lost data, only some operating system settings were set to default and service packs had to be installed again.

So what do I do? Again, it gets stuck and kicks back a Critical error...abort retry fail or ignore. No matter whaat I pick it just says "This process has been terminated". Also, sometimes it says please enter a command (ie. C:\Command.Com). All I have is the manufacturer (SONY) recovery disks

Hello,

Thank you very much for your input Mictlantecuhtli. I don't know too much about what the patch actually was so i don't know if what you suggested could be the problem.

I actually have another problem I went ahead and proceeded with the repair and everything goes fine until I get an error that reads "Setup.exe Application error" and the a subtext that reads "The instruction at '0x75d1a23e' referenced memory at '0x06310ed0'. The memory could not be 'read'. This error pops up after going through the installation and I click "next" after keeping the language settings.

I heard from a friend that I might be able to save most of my data through a parallel installation. I don't want to lose any data but i guess only some is better than all. Is there anything else i can do to get to Windows AND keep my data?

I should mention that i went through Recovery Console and try to run chkdsk /p and /r, nothing happened. It came up with results saying that it founds errors and fixed them but it still doesn't let me go back to windows. Now when ever I start my computer no matter if the WinXP disc is in the drive or not I get the start of setup for installation. Can I bypass this in any way?

I apologize for the long reply and so many questions but I am freakin out about this whole thing, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys so much for what you do.

--

Rick , is there a WPA required after successful completion of the steps you have detailed in your discussion of "How to: Repair Windows XP/2000 if you are unable to boot into Windows" ?

I have been reading that such a thing would be needed and there's a problem with this activation - the same product key will not allow activation of the repaired XP installation ?

Any suggestions how one may overcome this ?

You don't need to input any information as far as a serial number or activation key when repairing your OS. It is already on the disc, and you are just reloading the default files.

So what do I do? Again, it gets stuck and kicks back a Critical error...abort retry fail or ignore. No matter whaat I pick it just says "This process has been terminated". Also, sometimes it says please enter a command (ie. C:\Command.Com). All I have is the manufacturer (SONY) recovery disks
Try this: Ultimate Boot CD (http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/)

Hey what happend to me is pretty odd.. I went on a 5 day trip and forgot to turn off my computer.. After about 3 days my mom got tired of the noise from it and turned it off. When i got home i booted up and got to the Windows load screen and then it just hung there afterwards with a black screen and no response. Of course i was like wtf and restarted which lead to the same thing. I figured i would see if i could run in Safe mode and thankfully it would run.. (which i am still in right now).. I found my windows CD and reinstalled with an update which doesnt delete any files. It started up in windows and i was like thank god. I installed a couple programs and restarted.. Unfortunately right after the XP load screen it went right back to a black screen i was like you have got to be kidding me. So I ended up doing a full reinstall of windows which took everything off and i figured this would fix the problem. I did a windows update and installed some drivers and once again i restarted and the same problem.. I figured what ever the problem was couldnt be fixed with my knowledge of computers.. any suggestions, this huge resolution is about to make my eyes fall out :suspiciou

Thank you. However, when this process gets to the point asking me if I
accept the license agreement, I hit F8 and nothing happens. I am using an
XP home edition disk in the process, and I have XP SP 2 on my machine after
downloading the SP2 upgrade. Do I need to use an original XP home SP2 disk?

But i seem to be having the same problem as everyone else in this thread and wondered if there was anyone patient enough to try and help me out. I did everything up until it got to the repair screen after loading all of the windows files from the cd. However, once there it just had the command prompt and I had no idea what to type. So I just tried resetting, but was still presented with Windows not fully loading, a blue screen flashing, and then my computer restarting. Can anyone please help?

Thank you!

Read the first message in this thread. It says to skip the repair option the first time it appears after the CD loads. If you don't, ;) you get that prompt, and at that screen, you have to type in tons of different commands to fix it.

I have tried all of this and it went through repairing the existing windows on my computer, but during the installation and setup part, I have only gotten as far as 16 minutes remaining before the computer shuts down. I have no idea why this occurs, and if anyone could help me out it would be greatly apprciated.

Hi all,
I am new to this forum and not so experienced in this field, so I really need your help!

My problem is similar to the so many posted here, however I will briefly describe it:

I have an old notebook IBM Thinkpad 770ED, where I tried to install a program (PCAnywhere). The installation wizard asked me to reboot, and I did it. After this, Windows XP Prof. hung and did not start. Tried many times; the logo appears and disappears as usually, but then the black screen remains forever. HD stops after +/- 3 minutes and that's it.

1- I will try to boot from the XP CD, however, I do not have it. One question is if I can borrow any XP CD??

2- I am confused after reading all the thread: Is the XP CD the normal installation CD, or is it a special recovery CD which I do not have??

3- Rick, in his explanation how to repair XP, mentioned a CD-KEY. Whta's this??

4- I would like to try the safe mode, however I do not have the chance to choose this mode, and Windows always tries to start normally. How can I force the screen where to choose Safe Mode??


I trust to count with your support, since I have no Backup and my wife will kill me if I do not fix this!!

Thank you all from Switzerland.

2- I am confused after reading all the thread: Is the XP CD the normal installation CD, or is it a special recovery CD which I do not have??
It's the normal one.
How can I force the screen where to choose Safe Mode??
Press F8 when booting, right after hardware check is done (although I'm not sure how your laptop does it), before XP's loading screen appears.

I'm trying to recover from a crash where c:/windows/system32/config/system was corrupted. This computer had the original XP Home installed and was then upgraded to SP2 from the Microsoft site a while back. I was able to do a low-level repair of the HDD using HDD Regenerator, which then allowed me to do a chkdsk/r and finally boot from the original Windows XP disc and try to do an R reinstall. However, when the installer runs, the system begins to gather all the info and says there's 39 minutes for the install, but then just sits there scrolling windows adverts across the screen and never goes into install.

I found on an XP help page that you can copy windows/repair/system over the original windows/system32/config/system file (aftern renaming the original system file) and when I do that the screen just blinks on and off at me while on the reinstall page.

I don't want to do a fresh install since there's a bunch of new programs that would need to be reinstalled, and some of their security/setup info is on the main disc itself. Talk about being between the devil and the deep blue sea. All my data is safe on the separate D drive, but I don't want to go through the pain of re-intalling dozens of programs again, many of which have upgrades from the factory discs.

Do you think the hangup is due to booting from the SP1 disc, even though the OS had been upgraded to SP2? If so, how do I make/get an XP SP2 disc for reinstallion of Windows?

What exactly should copying the /windows/repair/system file do for me. It just makes the computer lockup or flash the screen.

If I bail out and do a fresh windows install, can I copy all the application files to the D drive first and then copy them back down onto the C: drive. Is XP smart enough to reinstall these applications automatially after a fresh copy of XP has had its way with the disc, or has that bird already flown the nest?

Any other suggestions?

Do you think the hangup is due to booting from the SP1 disc, even though the OS had been upgraded to SP2? If so, how do I make/get an XP SP2 disc for reinstallion of Windows?
Could be. Search for "slipstream XP SP2", it should answer the second question.

i'm trying to repair windows from a stop error 0x6b i hpoe the repair works. thanks for the info. :knock: :grinthumb

I am also having trouble doing a repair install of XP Pro.
Full version of XP Pro, only used on initial install.
All updates current including SP2, last updates were about a week ago.
After the repair install seems to finish and before the system re-boots the following is the error message i get...
Error:
Setup had problems registering the following OLE control DLL:

D:\XPI386\System32\initpki.dll

Contact your system administrator, who may provide assistance in diagnosing this problem.
***

Warning:
Setup failed to remove the product catalog SP2.CAT.

***
Error:

The signature for Windows XP Professional Upgrade is invalid. The error code is 426.

The service has not been started.
***

Fatal Error:

Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error. The setup log files should contain more information.

Is this because of SP2 being installed ? ?
And is there a workaround for it. I'd rather not do a clean install at this point if i can help it.
Thanx in advance...
patio. :cool:

Hey im new. Im having a problem with my laptop. I got the same thing as everyone else, It gives me the screen with the options of safe mode and safe mode with networking and all those others and once I pick one it flashes the windows start up screen and then the quick blue screen and back to the options screen again. I was told that I should do a repair install since I cant even get into windows in safe mode. I have windows xp home edition but I dont have a windows cd, all I have is the cd that came with my laptop. My laptop is a toshiba satellite A65-S126. Im having someone from home send me the cd since I dont have it with me but Im not sure if the cd will let me repair or if its only for when I want to format. If I have to I will go and buy the windows cd because I've asked all my friends and none of them have it. I was also wondering if I could use the windows xp upgrade cd that they sell for $99 because I really dont want to spend $199 on the other xp cd. And doing this will (hopefully) let me fix windows without loosing my files right? Thanks

My system is unexcessable at the moment I just installed a new amd xp2700 cpu and 1gb of memory in my rig booted up and all seemed well windows Xp w/t-SP2 noticed the upgrade and escorted me to the activate and reregister prompt .I'm thinking fine lets do that and all seemed right...then after my session ended I get this warning window telling me that my cpu was updated but my all other items or whatever will be set to default and I'm feeling my system might not act as it should ,you see I didn't write down the exact wording being that I felt that I'm well worked in the ups and downs of the PC world...WRONG....The next time I start my PC not 30mins after the last shutdown everything starts out great then I get to the logon page then I notice my mouse is wiped out and theres no responce from my keyboard plus my usb devices are not lit and none are responding to the bootup. I can't even press delete to enter setup at the system prompt my accessories are all offline any indication of a fix. ONE HOUR LATER AND NOW MY SYSTEM WON'T EVEN TURN ON cpu temp was 77f

I have windows xp home edition but I dont have a windows cd, all I have is the cd that came with my laptop. My laptop is a toshiba satellite A65-S126. Im having someone from home send me the cd since I dont have it with me but Im not sure if the cd will let me repair or if its only for when I want to format. If I have to I will go and buy the windows cd because I've asked all my friends and none of them have it. I was also wondering if I could use the windows xp upgrade cd that they sell for $99 because I really dont want to spend $199 on the other xp cd.
I could be wrong, but I think you should be able to obtain a XP CD practically for free, since you already got the license with the hardware. It's not the storage medium (CD) that costs $whatever, it's the license.

Hi everyone,

My XP pc has recently started rebooting instead of shutting down. I am pretty sure that my PSU must be overtaxed, could this be causing the problem? - would it be worth trying to repair windows by booting from the XP disc in case their was a problem with windows?. please help.

Thanks

Andy

..The next time I start my PC not 30mins after the last shutdown everything starts out great then I get to the logon page then I notice my mouse is wiped out and theres no responce from my keyboard plus my usb devices are not lit and none are responding to the bootup. I can't even press delete to enter setup at the system prompt my accessories are all offline any indication of a fix. ONE HOUR LATER AND NOW MY SYSTEM WON'T EVEN TURN ON cpu temp was 77f


I Might be wrong but this sounds like a hardware failure, possibly a power problem to begin with. What size is your PSU? These newer CPU's need a lot of power and if you are running a lot of other gear including fans, coolers etc. you can soon run out of power causing all kinds of instability issues. Also cheap PSU's can often be right on the limits of voltage tolerance for ATX 3.3/5 &12v rails and adding further power hungry components can put the rails out of limits and fry the PSU. It could also be the memory. I'm not an expert but I would try the following:

I'd try the obvious first and look inside to make sure everything is plugged in properly ie ATX power, all molex's, data cables, memory / cards seated properly, all switch leads in ok and the CPU Fan heatsink properly mounted and connected.(oh - and the power lead is oK!)

If this doesn't work you could try removing one of the memory sticks. Disconnect all the drives from the mobo leave graphics card in but remove all other PCI cards for the moment. Try and switch on enter the BIOS setup (normally F2 but it varies) If so have a good scout around the BIOS especially hardware monitor and the power section to verify you have good voltage on the 3.3/5&12v rails. If this works then gradually add hardware (drives last) each time going into the BIOS to make sure all is well. If you suspect a memory problem try using memtester software (search on google). It boots from a floppy and thoroughly test your memory for any errors.

If you can't even do this then without spares it will be hard to identify the problem. Could be a fried mobo. cpu, memory, or just a PSU failure. This could be process of elimination if you have the time and equpiment!

All the best.

Well I tried all that after my post and nothing going. So I took off in a huff over to my local Fry's thank the lord for Fry's and got myself a 600wt Ultra Xenex connect PSU good stuff. Got it running but still no mouse keyboard or USB ports so Blue login screen is all I get maybe it was the 7fans + chipset fan + cpu fan + Vid card fan and two fans on the PSU. Internal Zip drive + floppy + 2 DVD burners two USB printers + USB multi card reader + USB multi port hub and Three sets of lights. Im going to try clearing the cmos jumpers on my board Gigabyte GA7vaxp ultra and see what gives. Atleast it's worth a try thankfully I like building PC in numbers or I'd have no backup for working on my Different projects. I'll post results.

Thanks CJeff

Hi. does anyone know how I can get around the found new hardware? This is causing my sysrtem to lock. I had a problem with corrupted files and used custom restore using Simple Backup. Now when I boot W2K it starts to boot in VGA mode then the found new hardware pops up then it asks for my ATI driver floppy which is a CD. I am unable to get past this because it hangs the system and there is no mouse, the keyboard will not work. Any ideas or help please.

Hi, guys, new to all this, but thanks for the great info so far.
so i am trying a WIN XP recovery from a borrowed Dell reinstallation cd (my wife's computer i'm working on is a toshiba) and at the Administrator password prompt i tried leaving it blank. wrong. then guessing two more times unsuccessfully, then hitting myself about the torso, restarting and continuing. who was repsonsible for giving this thing an admin. password, the owner of this cd or my wife who bought the computer? who should i be hounding for this info/ turning the blows to?

many thanks for any and all help.

ntoren

i had this sp-1 on my laptop and i decided to install another service pack 1 cd over the older version now it dose not work help me out please

I had a problem with WIN XP and recovered everything but I cannot get onto the Internet. I run the Internet Connection Wizrd and try to install a new connection. Here is what happens: I create a new connection and press NEXT and select Copnnect to the Internet. I choose the set up my connection manually selection. When I get to this next screen the first 2 selections won't allow me to click on them for Connect using a dial-up modem. The only one that it selects is connect using a broadband connection. How do I allow the dial up modem selection to be chosen when it won't let me? Can Anyone help? Thanks

Make sure the drivers for your dial-up modem are installed.
1 more thing....GET CABLE! or any other broadband connection. Dial-up is practically useless.

Hi, First let me say that i have read this post from the beginning (thats a lot of reading) and although there are a lot of problems/solutions here, im not sure if any are related.

Ok, from the beginning, I have 2x 60Gb HDD's in my PC and they are both full. So i decided to uninstall some old applications/games, which i did and freed up 20Gb on one of the drives.
However, i decided to uninstalled Nero as well and removed InCD. Once this was removed it asked me to reboot my machine, to which i thought "fair enough". However, i am now under the impression that the people at Ahead don't want you to remove their software because my PC now refuses to boot.

What happens is, the boot up process appears to go fine until the part where it should display the 'white dotted bar' boot up screen. It then reboots with no warning messages or anything. So then it re-boots up to the "your computer failed to boot" blah blah "select your boot method" blah blah.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to make any difference which option i select, whether it be safe mode with command prompt, with network, last known good, normal, bells and whistles or pink tutu mode. As soon as i select one of the boot methods the computer just reboots. Whereby i select the boot option and... rinse and repeat.

I have just managed to get hold of a borrowed copy of XP Pro w/SP2
so i will give the recovery console thing a go.

But i would like to know if there is something glaringly obvious that i am missing or is my o/s just screwed?



Oh, and FYI i have found a link to the following site for all those who cannot remember the Admin password for the recovery console.

Here (http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm)

lsass.exe - System Error
Security Accounts Manager initialization failed because of the following error: The handle is invalid, Error Status: 0xc0000008. Please click OK to shutdown this system and reboot into Safe Mode, check the event log for more detailed information.

i saw the thread on this but it wasnt of much help....i tried the repair...i doesnt work because the repair doesnt replace the SAM file with the logon encryption...i copying the files to the other partition with norton commander but of course i dont have access to do that.....help pls...thx
btw winXP sp2 :dead:

Hello

I am new here
I have face this problem just yesterday
I have Win XP Pro SP 2 installed in my pc
Yesterday I try to install Fedora Core 3 just for fun and my Win XP cannot boot and it said it cannot boot because of missing dll file in System32\

First I try using Partition Magic to resize my current partition to make a available space for it
When I check my hard disk partition, there was a space at in front of other partition about 8MB.
I partition it. It all ok when I try booting from Fedora CD and I successfully install my Fedora.
When I reboot my pc, it say error like I said before.

I try to repair using my WinXP SP2 CD and it come out with Press Any Key to Boot from CD and when come to check my hardware, it stuck there ad there is no blue screen like the guide show.

I checked my Windows partition using DiskDruid in Fedora and it still exist.
And my Grub Boot loader cannot.

Is it because I have format the 8MB space that exist in front of my other partition?
Or is it my hard disk MBR?

Please someone help me because I have alot of work in my Windows partition that I need to submit this week.

For your info I am using WD 80 GB SATA hard disk using Intel 915 GAV mobo with 2.8G Pentium 4 775 HT.

Or is it my hard disk is corrupted but I can see my NTFS partition using DiskDruid...

Thank you

mynor-

You should NOT have formatted that 8mb space. That space is allocated, I believe, for Windows installation or setup files or something very important. the other techies here should be able to tell you more.

Hello
Hello.

The 8 MB partition has probably changed the partition table order (although if it says missing a dll file, it sounds like it has started to load XP), so you should remove the partition. That 8 MB is there because different partitioning applications see the hard disk drive geometry differently. Windows setup isn't very tolerant to partition changes and/or partitions formatted in other operating systems, so I'd recommend installing XP first and creating a partition for it in its own setup, then other operating systems.

I have try like you said and it happen as you say.

Thank you for advise...

Hi, I'm pretty new to all this so any help would be great!

When I try to run XP I get the message 'Invalid boot.ini' then it goes to 'the following file is missing or currupt Windows\System32\hal.dll'

I've tried using recovery console to recopy this file but it says Access denied. I don't receive a prompt to enter an administrator password either.
I tried using the xp install disk but it doesn't give me a repair option, only to install.

Anyone got any ideas how I might be able to fix this without formating the harddrive? Or even a way I could retrieve some files before I format it.

Any help is most appreciated!

Anyone got any ideas how I might be able to fix this without formating the harddrive? Or even a way I could retrieve some files before I format it.

Personally, I avoid trying to repair windows with a recovery console or any other technically challenging method (I'm not that technically advanced).
I would simply connect that HD to another PC as a slave (make sure you set the jumpers on both HD's correctly). Preferably a PC with a cd or dvd burner (unless the pc you use is on the same network in which case you would only need to copy the files you want to the Master HD to be transferred later, over the network, to the newly formatted HD).
If the PC you decide to use is not on your network (i.e. at a friends house) then you simply burn whatever files you want to keep to disc, put the HD back into your PC (make sure you set the jumpers back to Master or Cable Select), format the drive, and install windows. Simple enough?
The only problem with this method is that you will need the Installation Discs (or Setup files, if the software was dl'd from the internet) to reinstall all of your software (i.e. Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, Antivirus, etc.).

Be careful when doing a fresh install on a newly formatted HD. Make sure you install the Hardware drivers in the proper order (I know with Dell systems this is particularly important. If you call Dell, a tech rep will tell you exactly what to install and when for your particular system.). Chipset drivers should be installed first.

Good luck :grinthumb

When I try to run XP I get the message 'Invalid boot.ini'
If you can get to recovery console, you can rebuild the boot.ini file with command bootcfg /rebuild.

Repair installs are nice, but aren't always available.

How to repair your system HIVE files (the registry) using the recovery console (http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/HIVEConsole/index.html)
http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/HIVEConsole/index.html

If you use Barts PE (http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/Setup_Barts_PE.html) it's a hint easier than the recovery console. Follow the same steps, but don't have to type as much. (Good ole A43 File management proggy)

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I tried running a repair from the windows disk but it ended up installing a new version of windows with a new user id. I can still see my old user names in Documents and Settings but appart from that it looks as if everything else is gone. I was about to format the drive and start again but when I checked the properties of the hard drive it says 40 gig is used. This is how it was before the crash so does this mean my files are still there I just can't see them?

Any help is most appreciated as I really don't want to lose everything!

Thanks

Does your Desktop still have shortcuts to programs you had previously installed? If so, do they work?
when you open My Computer and look at your hard drive, do you see more than these 3 folders: <Documents and Settings> <Program Files> <WINNT>?

If you open Program Files, do you see any folders containing programs you had previously installed?
If so, when you goto Control Panel then Add or Remove Programs, are your old programs listed there?

This is kinda hard to troubleshoot when we don't know what you're seeing.

If the HD properties says that 40G is used, then I would assume your old files are on there.

goto the My Documents folder of one of your old usernames. is there anything there?

did you try searching for an old file you know the name of? an mp3 or something?


"need more input" "johnny 5 is ALIVE!":dead:

Typically, an install over a previous installation keeps all files not associated with the windows install. That is to say that if you installed Windows over your current installation, as it seems you did, and you previously had loose files (images, documents, movies, etc.) those files are still there.

However, when you reinstall you will create and log into a new profile when windows starts. This means that all your desktop, my documents, bookmarks for ie, and the like will not show up. All that stuff is still there it's just in another profile. To find it explore to C: and look in documents and settings for another named profile. If the name you gave it during this new install is the same as the old one there will be 2 similar named profiles in Documents and Settings. For instance, if one is Dan1 the other may be DA~2 or something similar.

The main problem with installing over your current installation is installed program functionality. Many programs that were previously installed may not show up in Add/Remove programs to properly remove. Additionally, many programs may not actually work anymore. This is due, primarily, to those installs modifiying system files that have now been restored to their previous state. Also many of those programs will no longer be reflected in the registry.

Sorry for the rambling. Hope this helps.

I can see all the previous user ID's. The programs I had previously installed are showing in add/remove software but not in any program file folders. When I try to remove or change them on add/remove it says file not found.
There's nothing in any My Document folders but there are a couple of shortcuts that I'd previously saved on the in the root directory but they don't work.

I tried searching for a few old files but nothing was found.
Should I try some kind of file recovery program?

Thanks for your help!

its always real good after you do that to dowload new antivrus and registy checkers spyware checkers adware checkers firewalls etc. do a complete scan of everthing possible i've done this b4 very good post :approve: