FAT kernel error

[scenemaker]

I'm trying to get a WinXP Home installation working and somehow contracted a problem that seems to be associated with FreeDOS. I had a year-long problem with seizures (black screen - nothing) and I've thrown everything I own at the problem. Apparently something stuck wrong, and I wound up with a seemingly incurable hang at "Root FAT kernel GO!" right before Windows boots.

To defeat the seizures I've replaced everything except the drive (including mobo, processor, memory, power supply) and I've done a reformat and clean reinstall of WinXP home, but when it restarts it still hangs on on the OS boot. I have to assume the command is the same (Root FAT kernel go) because it lasts for 1/10th sec before reboot and I can't get into the installation to stop rebooting on error. Partition Magic reports the partition as healthy and no problems.

Before I completely repartition the drive (I would like to keep what's on other partitions), is there any way I can boot this drive?

Thanks for any help.

 

[mesarectifier]

If it's saying 'Root: FAT kernel Go!' I'm assuming the partition is running on FAT32. Perhaps converting to NTFS might help the problem - do a Google, theres a way of doing it thru command prompt/recovery console without losing any data.

 

[Ranwan]

Hi !
I've had the same problem recently and still have it from time to time although I always forget the solution which is pretty simple, at least in my case. It seems that XP doesn't like USB keys being connected over night or while the PC is shut down.
So try to simply disconnect any USB device and XP should boot.

I'm still puzzled by the message and would like to have it explained if anyone feels like it. I can't imagine why XP couldn't boot while a simple USB is connected nor why XP developpers wrote a message looking more like a virus than like a serious Windows warning.

Well, I suppose the key is never to try to understand Windows...

 

[mesarectifier]

USB keys (in my experience) only cause the computer to just reboot during startup without BSOD. Although, you could be right, 'cuz USB keys do operate on FAT and if the disk is NTFS then presumably it's the FAT drive where the issue lies.