Opps, just made WinXP non-bootable. HELP!

OK, here's the story, I wanted a fresh WinXP install, but I didn't wanna lose my files. What I did was created a secondary partition, put my files there. Next, I went to the WinXP installation CD, deleted my main partition, and created a new one in it's place, and installed WinXP over. Everything was almost done, until I decided to delete the secondary partition I had made (for the files I wanted to move to the new WinXP partition). Problem was, Partition Magic 8 said it(the secondary partition) was "Active" and that the partition I was using PM8 on, wasn't active. So I was like w/e and deleted the secondary partition. Next, It said I had to make one of the partition's "Active". The option for doing htat on my now main partition was grey's out. So I again was like w/e (didn't wanna post on here cause I couldn't get the damn SS thing working) So i rebooted. Got to the screen before WinXP...it tells me to insert the system disk . What do I do from here to make my WinXP partition bootable again? I'd REALLY appreciate help here, thanx!


BTW my main XP partition is now inside a Primary Partition, meaning it's a Logical partition for some odd reason.

I'm a bit confused about your problem, but I would try booting from the XP CD and typing fixmbr from a command prompt.

Yeah, booting of the WinXP CD sounds like it will work and then you can setup your partitions as part of the setup process.

I've already tried the FIXMBR command, no help. Next, I don't need to do any thing w/ the partitions, I already have WinXP installed and partitioned.

BTW edited to help you guys understand a bit better.

Using the two PM8 bootdisks you created when installing Partition Magic, boot to the PM GUI. If you didn't create PM bootdisks, run FDISK from a Win98/Me bootdisk. Write down all of the HDD partition information as shown in PM or FDISK, and post it in this thread...i.e. which partition is Active, the type of partition(s) (Primary, Logical, Extended), the size of each, the filesystem being used on each (NTFS, FAT32, etc), and how the partitions are layed out on the HDD. For example:

HDD size - 80 GB
Partition 1 - Active/Primary, NTFS, 20 GB
Partition 2 - Primary, NTFS, 20 GB
Partition 3 - Logical (within an Extended partition), FAT32, 10 GB
Partition 4 - Logical (within an Extended partition), FAT32, 5 GB
Partition 5 - Free Space (within an Extended partition)...etc, etc.

redduc900 said:

Using the two PM8 bootdisks you created when installing Partition Magic, boot to the PM GUI. If you didn't create PM bootdisks, run FDISK from a Win98/Me bootdisk. Write down all of the HDD partition information as shown in PM or FDISK, and post it in this thread...i.e. which partition is Active, the type of partition(s) (Primary, Logical, Extended), the size of each, the filesystem being used on each (NTFS, FAT32, etc), and how the partitions are layed out on the HDD. For example:

HDD size - 80 GB
Partition 1 - Active/Primary, NTFS, 20 GB
Partition 2 - Primary, NTFS, 20 GB
Partition 3 - Logical (within an Extended partition), FAT32, 10 GB
Partition 4 - Logical (within an Extended partition), FAT32, 5 GB
Partition 5 - Free Space (within an Extended partition)...etc, etc.

Click to expand...

Thanks redduc, I didn't create any bootdisks from PM8 () And I don't have a Win98/ME bootdisk, but I DO remember knowing I can get access to FDISK from the Universal Gentoo Install CD I have, I'll use that and report back.

Sry Redduc, couldn't get any information on which partition is "Active" from the Gentoo FDISK.

but anyway:

1-Extended-W95 Ext'd (LBA)- ~72GB (my estimate)
2-Primary-NTFS- ~72GB (my estimate)

Assuming you have a floppy drive, just go here...

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

...and download the OEM version of the Win98 SE or WinMe bootdisk. The downloaded .exe when run will create a bootdisk (containing the FDISK tool, among other things) for you. Boot up to the bootdisk you created, and select "Start computer without CD-ROM support". Next, just type fdisk at the command prompt, and make sure to enable large disk support.

If you don't have a floppy drive, download Bart's PE Builder 3.1.3 from MajorGeeks here...

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Barts_PE_Builder_d4007.html

...then use it to create an ISO, and burn it to CD.