Problem Starting XP

I'm haveing a problem trying to get xp to start back up. It started when my wife was makeing a movie and the computer kept crashing. After rebooting I would just get a black screen. So I rebooted into windows recovery consel and typed fixboot to rebuild the boot record. After rebooting that didn't fix the problem. So I tried fixmbr in the recovery consel. Didn't work either. Any ideas other than reinstalling windows?

Just a shot in the dark, but boot to the Recovery Console and type the following commands hitting ENTER after each...

CD .. (this will take you up one level from C:\Windows> to C:\>)
ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\boot.ini (removes the Hidden, System and Read Only flags from the Boot.ini)
del boot.ini
BOOTCFG /Rebuild (at the "Add installation to boot list" prompt, select N for NO. At the "Enter Load Identifier" prompt", type the name of the OS you have installed... i.e. Microsoft Windows XP Professional. At the "Enter OS Load Options" prompt, type /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
CHKDSK /R /F (checks for and repairs bad sectors and corruption on the root partition)
FIXBOOT (when prompted to write a new bootsector to the partition C:, hit the Y key for YES)
Exit

Thanks for the reply. But it's looking bleak. I tried these commands and got these replys from windows:

ATTRIB -H-S-R C:\BOOT.INI
The file cannot be opened.

del boot.ini
An error occurred during enumeration.

BOOTCFG /Rebuild
Error: Failed to successfully scan for Windows installation. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would prevent BootCFG from successfuly scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk errors.

chkdsk /r/f
The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.

Any other shots? Or is my goose cooked? On the bright side, I do have a backup image (3 weeks old) saved on another partition that I can restore. Thanks.

Download and run Memtest86.

http://memtest86.com

Boot back to the Recovery Console and type chkdsk /r (without the /f switch this time) at the C:\> prompt.

Boot back to the Recovery Console and type chkdsk /r (without the /f switch this time) at the C:\> prompt.

Didn't work, still that awfull message..."The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems."

There is the possibilty that you are developing a drive problem. Sometimes you get Windows error messages or difficulties when this happens. I'd suggest that you;
1.Try a new cable for your drive(s).
2. Run the appropriate diagnostic software for your HD. If there is a problem developing, this can perhaps give you a hint.

stool said:

There is the possibilty that you are developing a drive problem. Sometimes you get Windows error messages or difficulties when this happens. I'd suggest that you;
1.Try a new cable for your drive(s).
2. Run the appropriate diagnostic software for your HD. If there is a problem developing, this can perhaps give you a hint.

Click to expand...

I gave that a try as well. Still no luck. I even did the extended test from the maxblast cd. Actually this is a new hdd (Maxtor 200gig) that I just did install a little over a month ago. I think I'm probably going to have to go back to the 3 week old restore image. But I would still like to get some files that have just been created about 1 week ago off of the hdd before I do a restore. My wife has scanned all of the old family photos into the affected partition (with windows). Many many hours of work will be lost! I tried to access the partition with a linux live cd (Overclockix) so I could burn them onto a dvd. But I was unable to mount the partition. I'm not very linux literate, so hopefully I can get into the partition if I keep trying. I know this isn't the approate subfourm for this, but any suguestions on how to properly mount a partition in linux?