Multiple XP Home Problems...

[pbaris]

Hello -

On a desktop, first problem was "missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe." I got into Recovery Console, and copied over a new file, and the boot started.

Then, got a "missing or corrupt ntfs.sys". Same process, I replaced it.

But then when I rebooted, the Windows XP first start-up screen with the moving bar just kept going and going and going - and then eventually stopped after like 5 minutes.

Tried running chkdsk - no errors. Ran chkdsk /p, and it went up to 25%, and then just locked up.

Sounds like the HD is messed up...

The Repair console does not give me the option to repair a previous installation - just takes me to the command prompt. There is no FDISK in those list of commands....Trying to boot from a Me boot disk didn't work either...

So how do I try and get out of this mess without doing a new XP Install (Just moved, and haven't found the XP Disk yet....borrowed one to get into Recovery mode)

Thanks

 

[hopejr]

recovery mode IIRC is not for repairing in the way that you are wanting (haven't used it in a while). You need to go through setup like normal (i.e. press ENTER not R). It will detect that there is a previous installation and ask if you want to repair it.
I don't think an Me boot disk will work because XP is based on NT, and Me is based on Windows 95 (DOS essentially). The tools on the Me disk won't work with an NT installation.

 

[Paperlantern]

hopejr is correct, you have to press enter to go into the installation part of the setup first, THEN when it detects the previous install it will ask if you want to repair it

good luck

 

[kuljc]

I hope you did it and didn't have any problems....

HERE'S A WARNING:

this happened to me, but I didn't research it so it might have just been a fluke.


I had sp2 on my system, and did the recovery w/ an sp1 disk (all i had). Lucky me ended up not even being able to load windows. Had to backup everything and redo the whole thing.

 

[pbaris]

Well - I did start down the path to do the install, but it never asked if I wanted to repair the disk even though it saw the previous version...so I bailed out when it asked me if I wanted to reinstall or create a new version on another partition (I think that was it)

I just found an older set of Norton System Works Emergency Disks (2003) - so maybe I will try to boot up to that, and try to run Norton's disk repair utilities and see what happens...

Wish me luck!