Windows XP forum: Windows XP in a boot up loop

Mike, this is over my head, and I'm not skilled enough to know if I'm going to do this right.

I can pull a drive from the machine, though.

Al

Well, I'm digging myself deeper, I think.

The latest...

Another guy I knew told me to boot the machine from the Windows XP disc, because he thought I had a "bad boot sector."

I do have a Win XP disc, but not for the computer that this problem is occuring on. It didn't come with one. When I bought the machine, it had Win XP Home installed on it, but you know how
it is, they don't give you the XP disc. All I could do was make a set of recovery discs.

Thus, I tried using the XP disc that I bought
for the other machine I have (which is running fine).

So, when I put the XP disc into the broken machine, and booted it, it started putting in drivers, and some other files, before it got to the screen that asked me if I wanted to repair, install, or cancel. I didn't know if this was what should happen, but I just did what the other guy told me to do.

I did the "R" for repair, and then it brought up the screen that asked me to choose to log on to either of those command prompts. One of them was I:\ I386, and the other one was I: \MiniNT.

This is some sort of dos prompt, but the choice was either 1 or 2, so I typed in the 386, and hit enter.

It then showed the dos prompt of I:\I386. Okay, so now I'm thinking, "yeah, now what??"

I remembered enough of my old DOS, to type in "help" and it brought up a list of commands. One of them was chkdsk, which I typed. It checked the disc. I also typed in "fixboot," and it did say it corrected a bad sector.

Anyway, I then typed "exit" and it was starting to reboot the computer, but it went right back to trying to boot from the disc, and then went right back to trying to load the files again.

When I got to the point of exiting the command prompt, I pulled the disc out, and then a black screen came up with the message "NTLDR is missing. Press any key to restart." This NTDLR is
apparently some file command that will allow the boot to occur??

But, all it does is go back to trying to boot the CD, again.

I'm stumped.

Have I really screwed things up??

Al

Bob, okay, but how do I get at the files to save them? Doesn't the restore disks remove all of those?

Bob, I like that idea of putting in a new drive, and using the other one as a slave.

To restore the operating system, after I install the new drive, would I then use the restore disks to do this, and that's all it will take?

I'm feeling a lot more comfortable right now....thanks.

Al

That's good information, and I'll follow it to a T.

Thanks much.

Al

Mike, thanks. I do have the restore disks. I did try, eventually, to to the recovery. When I went to the one suggestion of "R" for restore, it wasn't clear if there had been any repair. There was one link on booting from the CD that said, "do not click on the R, but go to the installation of Windows." That was confusing, but I did what it said, and when I got to the agreement section, I clicked yes, and then it said that it couldn't find an existing operating system on the drive.

So, that's why I was stumped.

I decided to install a new drive. It gave me an opportunity to put in a bigger drive. The recovery disks worked fine. All security and updates are installed.

I haven't yet put in the old drive.

When I do that, with all the programs that are on it, will I be able to access those programs?

Some of those programs are originals, plus numerous updates, and I have the discs for them, but it will take a very long time to re-install all of them.

If I could access the programs from the old drive, it would be simpler if I could go that route.

Al

Programs need to be reinstalled to the current OS as items such as registry entries, shortcuts etc. need to be properly loaded. The old drive when connected will hopefully provide access to the files created by those programs.

This sounds like a good idea.

http://www.cnet.com.au/software/office/0,239035383,240004005,00.htm

Is this still the best program to use?

Al

By the way, I bought a case for the original/questionable drive, and it was recognized by the computer, but it had little information that I understood when I clicked on properties.

But, when I had an external drive crash a while back, you recommended Runtime.org. I purchased the NTFS version for the external drive, and it worked well to recover my files.

I'm using it on this most recently screwed up drive, and while it is going to take a couple of hours to scan it, it does seem to be finding all the files.

A worthwhile investment, to be sure.

Al