Re: Techie help required pls

"Old Grizzly" <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:40e5a2F19ndosU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <snip>
>>
>> OK, so if you're positive that it's Set to Boot up from the Hard
>> Disk first, but it isn't (& it's not Booting from the CD, if there's
>> no Bootable CD in the CD Drive), then that would indicate a prob with
>> either (or both) of the Partition Table & or MBR -Master Boot Record
>> or Boot Sector?
>
> Yup positive!
>
>> You say that the Disk itself is OK & Readable?
>> The Seagate Diag stuff can read it OK?
>> & can you Read the Hard Disk OK, when Booted into MSDOS, off that
>> (Floppy?) Boot Disk?
>>
>> If so, then that would imply that the BIOS *is* actually Reading
>> the Hard Disk OK & that the Partition Table is actually OK.
>
> Seagate diagnostic software did an advanced test on the disk and
> said all is well

That sounds hopeful!
:-)

With any luck (& a bit of patience) & some threatening words to it(!)
you should be able to get the Boot Sector stuff sorted out on it OK...

>> So that just leaves the MBR - Master Boot Record, &/or the Boot
>> Sector then?
>>
>> Or possibly the (WinXP) Boot Files, but then you would get
>> a Message saying that it couldn't find them, if that was the prob.
>>
>> Can you Boot up off a CD OK?
>> If so, can you Boot up using the WinXP Install CD & Boot into the
>> Recovery Console.
>
> Yes i can boot from the XP Pro cd
>
>> If so there are several things you can do, from within the Command
>> Line Recovery Console, which should Help sort out the Boot Sector
>> & stuff like that.
>>
>> Post back with if you can get into the Recovery Console OK.
>>
>> & have a look at the Syntax of the Commands, such as
>>
>> FIXMBR
>> FIXBOOT
>> BOOTCFG
>> MAP
>> DISKPART
>> CHKDSK
>>
>> Use a the "/?" Switch with them (or use HELP <Command>) to find out
>> the Syntax.
>>
>> Or look up on the Web.
>>
>> Don't actually *use* the Commands yet, cos some of them can screw
>> things up really badly, if they are used when they aren't actually
>> needed, but familiarise yourself with the Syntax of them.
>>
>> Then we can try & make it Fixted.

First thing I would suggest, would be to just Boot up into the Recovery
Console off the WinXP CD & Run the CHKDSK Command on it & see if that
completes (or even starts!) OK

Use the CHKDSK Command on its own, first, with no parameters.
Then try it with the /p Option
& then try it with the /r Option (which implies the /p Option as well).

For more Info on the Recovery Console & the Commands available, have
a look at this M$KB (micro$oft Knowledge Base) Article...

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314058

*If* the CHKDSK Command shows everything as OK (using all 3 variants
of it), then I would suggest using the MAP Command, to see what Hard
Disks, Partitions, Drives & File Systems it reckons are available.

Post back with what you get.

Then (depending on what the MAP Command shows) try the FIXBOOT Command.

& finally try the FIXMBR Command (having read the M$KB Article
about it *first*!)

After trying each Command, try Rebooting (from the Hard Disk, not
the CD).

Yes, that can all get a bit (well, a lot!) tedious!
Especially, cos Booting up into the Recovery Console each time takes
a fair bit of time.

But doing it that way, you will be able to get the Boot stuff sorted
out, with the minimum chance of screwing anything else on the Disk up.

Have you got an ordinary Boot Floppy, with stuff like FDisk & PTEdit
(Partition Table Editor) & PTInfo (Partition Table Information) on it?

If so, what does FDisk say about the Partitions?
& what does PTEdit (or PTInfo) say about them?
Is the Primary Partition on the Hard Disk showing up OK?
& is it marked as "Startable" or "Bootable" ("Active" in FDisk)?

HTH

--
pmj


.

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