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I need help .. Master boot record?

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BlueBall

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Location
The Hammer, Ontario
I hope someone can help me ....

I was cranking the multis and FSB the other day and now windows can't find the /system dir. I've had this before with SATA devices being run out-of-spec.
My problem is that .. while my XPSP2 CD will boot ... it needs my SATA driver disk. I put my last FDD in someone elses machine ... so now I can't 'R'ecover OR install.

I recall ...

Fix MBR ... and bootcfg?

I'm oldschool DOS, so go ahead, try to confuse me
 
Now windows can't find the /system dir
I'm not sure what you mean by that exactly, and without knowing the exact error message you're receiving upon boot...I'll assume the error is in regards to a missing or corrupt "Windows\System32\Config\System" file.
My problem is that .. while my XPSP2 CD will boot ... it needs my SATA driver disk. I put my last FDD in someone elses machine ... so now I can't 'R'ecover OR install.
Without having the ability to install the SATA controller drivers, XP has no way of seeing the SATA drive on which the OS is installed...as you said it yourself: "so now I can't 'R'ecover OR install".
I recall ...

Fix MBR ... and bootcfg?

I'm oldschool DOS, so go ahead, try to confuse me
If you could boot to the Recovery Console, you could run the following commands, if indeed the ...\System32\Config\System file is missing or corrupt:

cd \windows\system32\config
ren system system.old
cd \windows\repair
copy system c:\windows\system32\config


This MSKB article describes the installation and use of the Recovery Console...

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP (Q307654)

The following quote is taken from the above MSKB article...
When the Recovery Console starts, you can press F6 to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver, in case you need such a driver to access the hard disk. This prompt works the same as it does during installation of the operating system

...also from the above article:
Fixboot writes a new startup sector on the system partition.
Fixmbr repairs the startup partition's master boot code. The variable device is an optional name that specifies the device that requires a new Master Boot Record. Omit this variable when the target is the startup device.
 
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