Unable to boot up

I got a new computer (second hand). Because I wanted to change the partitions I installed Partition Magic 8. When starting this program for the first time it produced an error message (don't remember which one exactly) and asked whether I wanted to fix it. I answered yes (big mistake! :banghead) and it said it fixed it and needed to reboot.

Now the pc won't start up anymore. When turning the computer on, it asks about starting a RAID utility (there are 2 harddisks and about 10 partitions). Then I have the option to start WinXP from the c-drive or the d-drive (I know WinXP is installed on both drives). It doesn't matter which I choose, I subsequently get the Windows start-up screen and that screen remains there for 7 or 8 minutes after which it automatically resets.

The WinXP start-up floppy disk that I have is from installing WinXP on my previous computer and doesn't seem to work on this pc. However, I can start-up using the start-up floppy disks that I made when installing Partition Magic 8. When doing this, it says about the harddisk (the one on which WinXP is installed): "partition table error #120 found". I can format the harddisk it but will then loose all the data.

Is there any way I can get the partitions fixed?

 

This suggests to me that you have a RAID1 array and it has been disabled in the BIOS.

Can we please get the make and model of the PC?

 

I must say I know little about computers. I know how to find the type of pc once WinXP has started up but now it's a bit tougher. Information I see on the screen when turning it on:
- Asus A8N-SLI Premium
- SIL 3114 SATARaid
- LBA Sata 2, 250gb & LBA Sata 2, 750gb.
- In the bios I read:
Primary IDE Master: None
Primary IDE Slave: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM
Secondary IDE Master: TSSTCorpCD/DVDW
Secondary IDE Slave: None
First SATA Master: WDC WD2500KS-00M
Second SATA Master: Samsung HD753LJ
HDD Smart monitoring: enabled
- 2.5Ghz, 1GB ram

 

Does it not say on the outside of the PC? Or is this a custom build?

 

I'm afraid it indeed doesn't on the outside of the PC and I do know that it's indeed a custom build.

 

Okay, working on the provided information it would appear that you have a 250GB hard drive and a 750GB hard drive which are connected to a RAID controller.

Let's start this the simple way: Boot up from your XP disc, and run CHKDSK.

 

I don't have the cd-rom of the WinXP version that is installed on the PC (the PC was left to me in an inheritance). So I use my own WinXP cd-rom (in English, while a non-English WinXP is installed on the PC).
After the message that setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration, the screen remains black. So, I'm afraid that even with the WinXP cd-rom it isn't booting up (cd-rom works fine on my old PC).

 

Okay, this is starting to look more serious now. I'm out of ideas at the moment but I am sure someone else here can help.

 

Just an idea: Personally, I think Partition Magic might have screwed up the partitions.

 

This would not affect booting from CD though. Just after the "setup is inspecting your computer's configuration" message, windows should say "Press F6 to install third-party drivers". As it is not doing this I suspect your SATA add-on card may be failing. I recommend you remove the add-on card and connect the hard drives direct to the motherboard SATA sockets.

 

I've opened the pc but there's no way I'm gonna pull this off. All cables going from one place to another... I also don't think it can be hardware. The pc has run well for years and now that I installed and started Partition Magic (which produced an error and "fixed" it), it stopped working.

However, I did find a topic in German (which I assume you can read ) describing exactly the same problem: http://www.nickles.de/forum/festpla...4/ibm-festplatte-bad-partition-537652873.html

For as far as I understand German, I've tried to follow the steps on that site. First, I've created a Win98 startup floppy disk using: http://1computerguy.com/software_download.htm. Unfortunately, using this floppy disk, the pc still didn't boot up.

My next idea is, in line with the suggestion on the German forum:
Knowing that the pc does boot up if I use the Partition Magic8 bootup floppies, I copied the killmbr.exe file (http://www.wintotal.de/softwarearchiv/?rb=53&id=1874) to this floppy disk.

Do you think it is an idea to try and run killmbr.exe? This program deletes the first sector of the specified disk (whatever this means...).
The german forum suggests to use wise.exe after that. However, wise.exe is for an IBM hard disk, which mine is not. Do you know an alternative to wise.exe?

 

The problem has been solved by deleting the partitions using fdisk (unfortunately, data was lossed).

 

Sorry it had to end that way, but I am glad you got it fixed.