tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post8154347006260901411..comments2024-03-28T08:26:58.108-04:00Comments on Our Odyssey: Seeking reader assistance -- XP gurusLouisehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06306854459459257368noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-77717368791983470962009-08-25T00:58:46.575-04:002009-08-25T00:58:46.575-04:00Sounds Like a Boot sector issue on the drive itsel...Sounds Like a Boot sector issue on the drive itself...On a few rare installs of XP you can boot to the command prompt and use the "Fixboot" command...if that fails find the file "ntldr" on your recovery cd and copy it in replacement of the one currently on the drive. You SHOULD find the file nestled somewhere in the C:\I386 folder...in theory... There is also an additional file with a a .com ending however i can't rember it for the life of me!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-51729712700596545952009-08-24T17:04:49.179-04:002009-08-24T17:04:49.179-04:00Drive problems can exist that chkdsk will not reve...Drive problems can exist that chkdsk will not reveal. I've had very similar sounding problems that were drive related. An app that has saved my bacon more than once is at www.grc.com. SpinRite is the app. Create the bootable cd and run it in data recovery mode. In some cases it can take a long time to complete.Stevenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-57427557599135576152009-08-23T23:16:06.639-04:002009-08-23T23:16:06.639-04:00simply starting the computer without the battery w...simply starting the computer without the battery will default the bios<br />johnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-91270512655499934372009-08-23T22:18:38.370-04:002009-08-23T22:18:38.370-04:00Sean, my copy of Windows XP (in my case SP2, on a ...Sean, my copy of Windows XP (in my case SP2, on a VMWare virtual machine running inside my MacBook Pro under Mac OS X) crashed hard in April of this year. Here's some links from my notes on how I fixed it:<br /><br />"How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting"<br />(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545)<br /><br />I also had to refer to this note:<br />"How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder"<br />(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531/)<br /><br />Following the instructions involved falling back to a System Restore Point, then moving forward to the pre-crash state. In the process my Windows activation was invalidated twice, and I had to call the nice folks at MS to get new Confirmation IDs to activate Windows. It might have been smarter to hold off on Windows activation until I was through with the recovery.<br /><br />The following entries from my notes are to do with the VMWare virtual machine, so may well not apply. But for completeness:<br /><br />"How to boot from Windows CD in Corrupted Fusion Session"<br />(http://communities.vmware.com/message/876118)<br /><br />I had to edit my .vmx file (VM config) to set bios.bootDelay to 8000 (ms). Also had to add floppy image of VMware's SCSI drivers, and had to fully shut down the VM to do this (suspend wasn't enough).<br /><br />Good luck walking through the Valley of the Shadow of the Blue Screen of Death.Jim DeLaHunthttp://blog.jdlh.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6208406.post-73543744443558328512009-08-23T17:41:35.483-04:002009-08-23T17:41:35.483-04:00try booting with "enable vga mode" vs sa...try booting with "enable vga mode" vs safemode, this will overide the vga.sys settings <br /><br />other option is to edit boot.ini file and add the switch /sos instead of xp splash screen, you should see the drivers as they are loaded and may be able to detect the one causing issue<br /><br />multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /basevideo /sosPaulnoreply@blogger.com