[XP] Fans

I'm sorry but the compatibility of the ram is no longer a problem ... I put back the original ram that was working just fine, but am now stuck with boot problems and corrupted files that I can't seem to get around.

I have learned my lesson not to buy 'cheap' ram and will be looking into getting some decent stuff IF I can get the puter working to some degree.

thanks for the reply

Virtual Patient

Update.... I found a few instructions out there on the net.... using repair tool I tried to sort out the bootcfg /rebuild it didn't find anything to rebuild ... I tried bootcfg /list and it said there was nothing in there .... next I tried repair console and went one step further to set up new installation except I just wanted it to find existing windows installations ... it didn't find any existing windows installations on there....they were there earlier honest:(

I just seem to go from one problem to the next.

does this mean I've got to lose all my stuff and reinstall to fix this machine?

If the hal.dll file is missing or corrupt, you will need to do a repair install of Windows. You should not lose anything when doing this.

Thanks jdc, that's exactly what I have been trying to do, I really don't want to lose the data on this drive. BUT, seems repair console isn't going to work for me, when the repair is run from the recovery cd it says the usual stuff about it being a repair console ... then at the end ....
The path or file specified is not valid.
C:\>

I have tried typing all kinds of stuff in there but to no avail. Here's what the bootcfg /list says .......There are currently no boot entries available to display.

Then I tried going to the next stage and opted for install windows ... intending to opt for repair at the discovery of existing installations ... the result of that was that no installations were found ..... all it said was.... 76317MB Disk0 at ID0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
Unpartitioned space 39MB
Partition1 [Unknown] 76277MB (76277 MB free)

which is hopefully untrue ... as at least 34GB is used on that drive :eek:

I really have no clue what to do now.

Virtual Patient

Boot up with the XP CD in the drive and let Setup run. Go past the "C" and "R" repair options by pressing Enter just as if you're doing a clean install and you'll eventually get an option to "Repair an existing installation". That's the one you want. If it asks about formatting you've gone wrong, so start over.

You'll get to keep your existing apps & settings, but you need to re-install SP2, Windows Updates & any unsigned drivers afterwards. NOTE: Be aware that you'll lose any protection from Blaster / Sasser type worms. Don't go online without a firewall, whether the built in Windows one or 3rd party.

How to perform a re-install of WinXP

Repair XP

WinXP Non-destructive Total Rebuild

Thanks for the reply, that's what I have tried, there are two windows installation on that drive, but they are not found when I do what you say.

76317MB Disk0 at ID0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
Unpartitioned space 39MB
Partition1 [Unknown] 76277MB (76277 MB free)

That is what is on the screen at the place where it should list the two windows installations that are available for repair :(

I have no idea why it is not finding anything on that drive, it was there when I booted the machine, I had access to everything, the computer seemed to work perfectly well through several reboots and died on a cold boot.

One prompt in the repair option said that I should run chkdsk but it will not run anything because it doesn't know where the drive is to run anything :confused:

Virtual Patient

If Setup doesn't find a Windows Installation, that is always because the files are so badly hosed that it is unable to recognise one :( Unfortunately all you can do is a clean install of Windows if that happens.

Is it worth trying to get any data off this drive by putting it as a slave in another computer? Most of the important sentimental stuff was backed up except more recent photographs.

A question? why would this error/corruption suddenly happen, what might have been the cause?

Virtual Patient

It might work using recovery programs.

PC Inspector

Restoration

TestDisk

Recuva

Thank you for the links Train, I'll see if I am brave enough to open up one of the other computers tomorrow, unfortunately I've got to go to work now to pay for all this stuff lol.

Hope to post back when I have a fully functioning patched up machine again.

Virtual Patient

I just might have to pick up a side job to get something newer myself.

tearing my hair out with this hard drive now :(

I have it wired up (albeit kind of externally) to a computer running windows me. Hooked it up as primary slave, with the existing hard drive as primary master, checked jumper setting for cable select on both drives. But whatever I do the bios is detecting the dead drive as primary master and the operating one as primary slave, although it is booting from the working drive :confused:

How can I force the dead drive into being primary slave? I think I need to do this to run PC Inspector which seems not to detect the dead drive even though bios sees it.

Virtual Patient

Cable Select can sometimes be a bit flaky. If you set the drives explicitly to Master and Slave then it should work OK.

Thanks SuperSparks, but how do I do that? as far as I know the jumper setting for master sets the slave to off?

I am not sure what I am doing with this stuff :(

Virtual Patient

There should be a label on the drives which tell you what jumper settings to use. Set the original drive to Master and the one that you have temporarily rigged up to Slave. The Master jumper setting won't affect the other drive as long as you don't try and mix and match CS and Master/Slave on the same channel.

Thanks SuperSparks but whatever I did it wouldn't act as a slave, so I did what any sensible person would do in the circumstances ... I stuck it in the secondary ide and no problems at all :o I should have thought about that a few hours ago

I am now battling with the PC Inspector program to try to retrieve files, but even with it's fancy GIU it's not obvious what to do, I managed to get it to locate the drive and even admit that there is stuff in there, directory listings and everything :)...but I have yet to work out how to get hold of that stuff to back it up to the good drive.

Virtual Patient