XP: powers up, won't startup

Hi Geeks,

haven't been in 4 over a year. PC been perfect! Suddenly warranty runs out and a month later, this... rolleyes

We have a corrupted boot.ini file on Windows XP Media edition. The computer powers up but will not start.

We have 3 available alternative PCs
- at home: laptop of same age with Windows XP
- at home: Really old PC with Windows XP
- at work: PC with Windows Vista.
Can they help?
Can the HDD from an XP PC simply be detached and re-connected as an XHD (we already have an XHD unit) to any of the above for repair or at least data retrieval?

Also is it possible to simply "reboot" from the system disk rather than "re-install"?

Is there any other way to repair this without losing all the data, i.e. wiping the disk? Yeh, I know i should have backed up, but you know how it is when distracted online, you 4get!

Sorry, I'm a good site-builder, but I'm b.u.jiggered at this sort of thing.

Thanks,
Jon

 

How do you know the boot.ini is bad? What is the error message when booting?

Do you have an XP installation disc? (Recovery Console and the bootcfg option should be able to rebuild the boot.ini)

Adding the HD through an eXternal USB enclosure should make data retrieval relatively easy and is definitely an option.

 

Within 10 seconds of booting up my pc, I get a glimpse of a message for 2 seconds stating…

Invalid BOOT.INI file
Booting from C: \windows\

This message is immediately followed by the next message…

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

This is as far as the computer will go.

I have inserted a Windows XP Media Centre edition reboot disc (supplied with the pc) and once that has loaded up I get a window showing the following…

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1466/xpreboot.jpg

I have read many forum posts saying that if I pressed the ‘R’ key I would enter the Recovery console. But when I press the ‘R’ key on this page nothing happens. I am afraid that if I was to press the ‘ENTER’ key I would proceed to a full system reboot and loose my data.

Is there another way of getting onto the recovery console other than by the ‘R’ key?

If I use the ‘faulty’ drive as an external HDD in an attempt to fix the error(s), will my laptop recognise it as an accessible mass storage device or will it have a permission problem?

 

Let's see it looks like your Windows CD dies not include recovery console. First, recovery console as a standalone CD. You will have to download that ISO file and write it to a CD as an image file using imgburn or similar burning software. This will give you a bootable disc with recovery console.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to proceed. I would have thought running bootcfg /rebuild would have been the best option. But because of your error I am now second guessing myself. It is my understanding that if boot.ini does not exist then Windows will do as your message said and look for a Windows installation and try to boot from it. It did that and then found hal.dll also missing. So am thinking that you are having a greater problem than just a boot.ini error.

I think I would try the bootcfg /rebuild and then a chkdsk /r if that did not work. But if you have other ideas from your reading feel free to try them first.

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Your laptop should recognize the drive. (I'm assuming XHD meant external HD enclosure) There may be a permission problem with some of the files but taking ownership of the files will solve that.
*****
Another data recovery option is a Live Linux CD like Linux Mint (700mb download). Also an ISO file that can be burnt to CD but much larger download. The advantage of this CD would be that it will boot the original computer without removing the drive and give you full access to all your personal files plus system files like boot.ini or hal.dll and do it in a Windows looking desktop environment. You could then transfer any files to USB flash drive. **You will not have access to bootcfg or chkdsk on a Linux disk

If I haven't answered fully please ask for clarification. I realize I haven't given you a definitive course of action.