Can't boot XP - keeps rebooting after BIOS splash

[sue_spell]

Hello.

I have a Home Edition XP Pc. It is home built and several years old.
My system is:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 @ 2.66 GHz
4 GB Dual - Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz
Gigabyte EP45-UD3L Socket 775 MB
GeForce 8600 GTS (nVidia)
3 hard drives
2 DVD drives

Last week I tried to install Win7 Pro onto another drive hoping to be able to dual boot. Something went wrong, now I can't even boot to XP.

I don't care about Win7 at this point, I just want to be able to get back to XP.

Since this is the Home Edition of XP, I don't have the option to do a repair install of XP. I have tried so many things that I've read here and other forums, that I don't even know where to begin to tell you what is happening.

I do have Paragon 9.5 and an image I think I can restore to. I can boot using the Paragon boot CD I made prior to trying the Win7 install - at least I was smart enough to do that... However, I am not sure this recovery actually fixes/restores the boot.ini, ntdetect.com, boot sector stuff. I am not technical enough to understand it.

I am pretty sure my problem(s) has to do with the boot sector, mater boot record, or the boot.ini. But, to be honest, I don't understand those things or how they work.

I am able to boot using the Paragon boot cd (I believe it is linux?) and I can boot to the XP recovery console and run commands and see my drives, folders, and files. It's all there, I just can't boot to XP.

I have tried such things as:
Copying ntdetect.com and ntldr from the XP install Cd to the root of my C: drive.
bootcfg /rebuild ... /list... /default... and some of the other switches

The Paragon recovery cd offers some tools such as repairing boot.ini and so on. As well as editing boot.ini. But, I don't know what the values should be.

I have not tried fixmbr because one I'm not sure what it does and two the prompt says not to use it if you can access the drive which I can do.

I did get it to boot to XP one time yesterday. Everlasting was there. My desktop, programs, everything. I know XP is there and bootable. But, when I shut down and rebooted, I was back to it just looping after the BIOS splash screen. Of course, when I hit F12 I can boot from other media such as the XP Install CD or Paragon recovery CD.

Any suggestions anybody can offer? I know XP is there...

Thank you.

 

[ksiemb]

Post the contents (copy/paste) boot.ini into your next reply.

 

[sue_spell]

Post the contents (copy/paste) boot.ini into your next reply.

Will do. Although I'll have to write it down and type it since I can't boot to XP and open it in notepad or something. Also, won't be able to do it until late today.

Thank you!

 

[ksiemb]

Will do. Although I'll have to write it down and type it since I can't boot to XP and open it in notepad or something. Also, won't be able to do it until late today.

Thank you!

You didn't mention, but can you boot to safe mode ?

 

[sue_spell]

No. I can not. The BIOS splash screen appears, goes black, then reboots to the BIOS splash screen. It just loops.

Thank you.