XP, will not Boot

Guys,

I have a laptop (tosh) that I have taken the HDU out to run a ghost image and when I return the HDU to the laptop win XP will not boot.

Any ideas, perhaps help with the Boot part of XP will be a help??

Cheers
Res

 

any error messages?
what happens when you try to boot..
does it post?

 

XP helllllllllllllllll

Kodo,

Comes up with Invalid system disk when tring to boot from HDU,any idea's as the 20 lb sledge hammer is closing in.

Cheers
Res

 

couple of things I think of..
1. Boot order not set properly
2. Drive partition C: not set to active
and the worst
3. You ghosted your new,empty drive, to your old occupied with winXP drive..

was the other drive you "ghosted" to another laptop drive?

 

Nightmare

Hi Kodo

I have ghosted from the original HDU to an image, which worked fine. From there i have put the HDU back into the TOSH and then got the EM. When i boot up with a boot disk I can seen all the files. I have repaired the MBR deleted it and repaired it through the WINXP Recover Console and i get the same problem.

I have activated and deactivated the partition still the same problem

I have ghosted back to the HDD from the image i get the same problem.

Please Help?

cheers

 

Make sure there are no other partitions that were hidden and now visible. Lots of times Prefab machines come with a hidden partition at the front of the drive for diagnostic "stuff". If it unhides, then that becomes C: and is generally not bootable.
partition magic is a great tool for managing partitions.

if everything looks good, try booting from the XP CD and running a repair on the install.