how to boot up w/o XP cd???

[salinas]

Hello,

Recently I upgraded my Sony Vaio notebook DVD-R drive using the firmware provided by Sony. After this (and probably through coincidence) my anti-virus program found a trojan.PageStart in my drive. In order to remove this, I disabled XP's system restore and proceeded with the virus' removal. Upon restarting my computer (for safe mode removal), I received a BSOD with an error message saying:

STOP 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
:blackeye:

While searching for a solution, I saw a post from Tricky (2-14-05)...... https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic21206.html
which seemed to be having a similar problem. Tricky did not have the XP disc (neither do I since XP home was preinstalled by Sony). Tricky said the he(/she?) partitioned the hardrive and copied the XP files from /i386 into a new folder. Is this a good solution to my problem, considering how I cannot afford to lose my data? If so, how can I do this from the startup screens? (I am fairly new to computers so any details would appreciated)

Please note that I cannot start windows in any mode (safe, normal, last known good config., etc.).

As for Vaio's recovery system, it does not allow me to perform a complete recovery. Is there anything anyone can tell me about this?

All replies are very much appreciated. Thanks for your time!

 

[Liquidlen]

Welcome to Techspot

You can boot your machine with a friend's copy of Win XP then follow the instructions in this thread.

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html

You will have a better chance if you have more than one partition on your machine .
You have just discovered the best reason for buying a good Disk imaging software and have a external backup media in place.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[salinas]

I solved the problem. Since I'm a student, I was able to obtain a student copy of XP Pro for about $6. Using this disk, I installed XP Pro then was able to access my files from my XP home OS.

I had some trouble accessing the "limited" user accounts that I had setup, but I created a backdoor using my newly created administartor account on XP Pro. Then I transferred my user rights to the administrator for all folders that were restricted. After doing this, I was able to copy all of my old files to an external hardrive. I then formatted all disks and re-installed XP Pro.

Everything's working great now, and I'm glad to say that the threads at TechSpot really helped. As for now, my only quam is that upon startup I still have an OS chooser screen which lists the previous OS's along with my current XP Pro. While there is no functionality associated with the other OS options (since I formatted the disks) it is a little annoying. Is there a way to remove them from my startup screen? Perhaps they are stored in an image file that has to be tweaked?

:approve:
Again, thanks!

 

[fiek101]

If you right click 'My Computer', go o 'Properties' and then 'startup & Recovery', you will get a dropdown list will installed OS's and the time to display it!!

 

[wlknaack]

Clearing the dual boot option

When you reinstall Windows XP, Windows keeps the original boot option although it is no longer operational. Run msconfig: Go to boot.ini tab, click on "Check all boot paths," delete the none-functioning boot path, click on "Apply", click on "General Tab" and make sure the boot selection is in
"Selective Start UP," with all options checked and the "Use Modified Boot.ini" selected. Note: If you select "Normal Startup," the second boot path will reappear in the Boot.ini. Exit by clicking on "Apply" (if presented), and then "OK".

Reboot, and the "choose the boot path" screen will no longer appear.

This will work in Windows XP Home Edition, so I assume it is the same in Windows XP Pro.

Good Luck