Corrupt XP Boot

Hi again and Woe is me.. where do i begin.. have a HD with a corrupted Boot/start up fault. message reads ''Error Loading Boot record'' have tried to repair with XP disk but will not perform. I have tried everything I know but to no avail. problem was/is i upgraded new Mobo and CPU and forgot to move all data on HD to storage HD,, tried the corrupt HD on another computer with identical mobo and CPU but Mobo must have been a later version as would not access the (HD/boot) The Mobo from (whence it came) is part of another com. I have built and i assumed same Mobo and CPU i will be able to access the HD but that is where the prob began as it will not boot. Is there any way i can get important data from this disk by means of a rescue boot package...
Asrock K7VM2
AMD Athlon 2200+
256 DDR
60 Gig Dekstar
XP pro OS

 

You can try www.ultimatebootcd.com - doubtful may be but nice to have anyway.

If you cant even access hd when it is slave, non-boot hd on other computer may be you need serious tool like R-Studio http://www.data-recovery-software.net/ I once blew up hd due to too high memory oc (killed HPT controller) hd was "raw" did not have a filesystem any more. Many tools tried in panic, R-Studio clearly the easiest and best. After some digging you get an explorer like window and you simply point and click files/folders you want to recover - must be saved on other media of course. Only problem is you need full version to recover bigger files...

 

or you could try

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4019.html

 

reply

Thanks for very swift reply .. I tried the Ultimateboot but unfortunately it didn't work and the other suggestion is a bit expensive.. had a thought if i bought another HD and installed same OS XP Pro on the com. then copied the boot from backup, then burnt it might be able to access that way. Weird how the XP Repair will not work as i thought thats what repair means, to fix problems but there again i could be wrong ....

 

firstly when updating motherboard its always a lot more practical to make a fresh install of your os too many possible problems etc like incompatible chipset drivers etc which i imagine is the cause of your problems

secondly forgive me if im wrong but you havent tried it in your other pc as a slave to the master with os on then you can just copy off the files you want to save put the drive back in original pc after resetting it to master then format the drive and put a fresh install of your os on

 

did you say this mobo is from another puter? if so did you reset the cmos

 

No Mobo and CPU and HD were part of the same system .. I upgraded and bought another case and installed all 3 items together.. did not touch CMOS Only thing I can think of that caused corrupted boot files was as I said earlier that I put the HD on a mates com. thinking the Mobo was the same but could have been a later edition although name/number were identical.. have heard today about Grafting 2 HD's together, any ideas on that subject plz. Thanks for your replies..

 

boot up with the xp cd and run a repair on the install.

 

Hi again that was the first thing i tried repair will not fully function

 

boot with a 98 boot floppy.. type in FDISK/MBR at the prompt, then try the repair.

what errors did the repair give you if any?

 

Something I found out the hard way a while back... Windows XP will only establish the IDE links to the motherboard on initial installation. Anything that changes that will cause Windows to go blind & refuse to load. (In my case, I simply removed the VIA IDE driver, expecting it to just go back to the default setup that Windows establishes automatically... it didn't, although earlier versions of Windows did with no problem.) I assume this is part of XP's zealous efforts to keep people from sharing Windows.

If your new motherboard is different in any way Windows XP will refuse to re-establish a link to it, and repair/restore won't cure it, as it's intentional. Best thing to do, as noted above, is to install that drive as a slave on another system, or stick another drive in yours temporarily & do a fresh Windows install there, with this one as a slave, so you can access the drive. You should have no trouble reading the drive as a slave.

 

Well here we go again.. when i start up in the list of boot sequence/post I get PXE 161 Media test failure, check cable .. have swapped cables if this is significant and made no diff. When I run from XP disk for repair and all drivers are loaded I get the C: command in dos format not the blue screen anymore.. I Fdisked and deleted and installed new partitions so they are all fresh now.. Going back to the dos C: prompt I tried chkdsk and have the following .. the volume appears to have one or more unrecoverable problems.. so I then typed ''fixboot'' and I now have no volume errors in chkdsk. But it still will not boot or repair as I still get error loading operating system. I tried slaving the HD and put on new system but when I tried to Explore drive its wanting to Format so that was a no go.. So over to you guys for further instructions pls.I am to quickly try the fdisk/mbr as I'm not sure I tried it as brain getting a little fuzzy .. will inform you of that outcome.. Thanks for your interest and time..

 

have tried the Fdisk/mbr and it runs but there is no information forthcoming just returns to dos prompt after 6/7 seconds

 

Reading through again I missed what GT said as I had come to that conclusion.. that installing a new HD and OS I should be able to access corrupted HD in slave... i'll go and purchase one now I'll keep you posted

 

progress update

Hi again .. I managed to borrow a copy of the data recovery that JSDK mentioned and have retrieved a considerable amount although not all.. I have a question as well.. I put the corrupt HD in com, with the original CPU and Mobo, I then Formatted the partition that had the XP OS on it and reinstalled OK but I still cannot access the data that is their, its showing in properties as unused. I'd appreciate your expertise on this.. thanks for listening..