Problem loading os microsoft xp

[2000hal]

PC was rebooted and this message showed up. I couldn't get to safe mode so I put the XP disc in. I got to the D:\winint dir and tried to run bootcfg to scan for the boot file. It came back that it couldn't find it. I was able to see the dir's and data on the 2 drives. I ran chkdsk to see if that would solve the problem, it didn't. Do you think this is a BIOS problem or a missing boot problem. If it was the BIOS would I be able to read the drive. Looking for a fix without destroying everything.

 

[aford10]

Did you check your C drive?

 

[2000hal]

Check how? I looked at the dir and could see the files. I believe I ran chkdsk from the D:winint prompt. As far as the bootcfg scan function I thought it scaned all drives. Thanks

 

[aford10]

Are they seperate drives, or 1 drive with 2 partitions? The OS will default to your C drive. So if you're looking for your boot files, you should look there.

 

[2000hal]

1 drive 2 partitions

 

[2000hal]

Sorry, thinking of wrong drive. There are 2 drives in the machine c: and e: each with 1 partition. Bootcfg /list on the c drive comes back not finding anything

 

[aford10]

can you get the c:\windows directory?

 

[2000hal]

ok I should have done a better job. No, there is no windows dir. I get access denied when I try to go to one of the dirs I see. Also I don't see my real E: drive and I did bootlist and scan, nothing

 

[aford10]

Try these 2 commands at the C prompt
fixboot
fixmbr

 

[2000hal]

Alright, I ran the 2 cmds and it doesn't look good. Machine still won't boot and now the D: drive which is a system partition on the drive, is giving a, access denied when I try to do a dir cmd on it. Also when I use the XP disc I no longer get the D:\WINIT prompt. I did the map cmd and it shows up as just D:

 

[aford10]

fixboot will repair your boot files. fixmbr will repair your master boot record. They obviously aren't the issue.

Try rebuilding your boot.ini file
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/repairbootini.htm

 

[2000hal]

I'll try it. Thanks again for the help.

 

[aford10]

No problem....hopefully this will fix it.

 

[2000hal]

well, I couldn't do the last fix, it's like the dive got worse. So I put a new one in reloaded XP and then added the damaged drive hoping to save some data. Problem now is it sees the drive but says its not formated. Anybody got an idea on how to revive it? Thanks