Partition/MBR problem

I am working on my grand parent's system, they had some infections. I cleaned all of those up using various tools and the system was getting better.

I had it booting and getting clean scans from adaware, bitdefender, trend etc etc....


At this point, there is a problem with the partition table or MBR. When I power the system on, it gets right past the POST and reboots, I press F10 for the recover console, nothing. I press F8 to invoke a windows menu, nothing.

I booted the drive in my computer and pulled all of the data off, I was able to read both partitions with no problem. I ran MBRFIX on the drive and still have the same problem, it reboots the system immediately before windows even starts to load.

I am running XP SP2.

The file NTKRNLPA.EXE was always locked, so that file was replaced from the I386. I would think that may have something to do with it, but I don't even think it is getting that far. I can't get any menus from either the boot manager or O/S.

It's an HP Pavilion.

Any ideas on repairing the partition table/mbr would be appreciated.

 

Hi,

What do you mean you booted the drive in your computer? You didn't actually boot the drive but attached it to your computer and accessed the files but were running your OS from your HD--correct?

From your computer open the trouble computer's C:\boot.ini and post what you see.

 

I connected it via USB to my computer. I did not actually boot the drive.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

Line 4 shouldn't be blank. Try editing the file with Notepad (you may need first to right click the file and in Properties remove the check against Read-only)

 

Forget that - it isn't going to make any difference. :-o

 

Hi,

I was thinking of adding a safe mode option to see how far you get in safe mode or if it is even reading the boot loader.

Try editing the boot.ini by copying the last line and then editing it to look like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Safe" /safeboot

So your boot.ini will be:

You should then get a choice of start up items when you boot from the HD. If you get the choice see if choosing the safe option gets you any further or just restarts. (If you get any sort of list of files being loaded in safe mode then that should tell us the partitions and MBR are OK and it is a Windows problem.)

 

Ok, Thanks, I'll try that tonight.

I figured I would get the menu by leaning on the F8 key, but I get nothing.


I'll try and post the results.

 

No F8 options is fairly common in XP installations. They just disappear for many people.

I'm not sure we will get any further with the edit but it should tell us something. You should at least get a screen with the two options. Whether or not they act the same I can't say.

If you get a chance can you explain the original problem with the NTKRNLPA.EXE file. I'm not familiar with that file as a common cause of problems. What program was saying it was locked?

 

No, I pulled the drive from the one computer, placed it as a slave in my system, booted my system and used a utility called MBRFIX to write a new boot record.

This didn't help, same symptoms.

The computer comes on, HP screen, then a black screen and reboots.

The Windows menu F8 will not appear, nor will the boot menu for the restore function will display, this is what leads me to believe that it is a partition/MBR problem.

 

Does anyone have GDISK32.EXE?

 

I don't have gdisk. TestDisk or Partition Wizard will both have all the functionality of fdisk. You could run either from your computer on the USB attached drive. Either will write a new MBR to the USB drive.

I don't think it is a partition problem. MBR, maybe, but usually that would land you on a blinking cursor not on a boot loop.

***
XP boot loops are not easy to fix. Perhaps you are correct that your problem is occurring before Windows even starts, I'm really not sure. Are you trying F10 during the HP splash screen? That is when it is supposed to take effect.

 

I have a friend going to bring me in the Windows 7 disk, I'll upgrade them if needed.

I already pulled their data, so no worries there.


This is a crazy one, in fact out of all the systems I ever worked on, this was the first one that left me asking for help.

 

Yes, i tried the F10 while on the splash screen, I would expect to get a boot manager that allows me to boot on the second partition for recovery, I am not getting this, hence the reason I think it is an MBR problem.