[pr0n]

the hard drive was accidentally formatted by a fantastic person who shall not be named. quick format was used and the partition was recovered using Active partition recovery enterprise. however. when I try to boot to the partition it says error loading OS. I have tried FIXMBR and FIXBOOT from a windows XP install disk (I do not have the repair option when the partition is selected). both to no avail. partition works just fine plugged into another computer I can access all the files and everything appears to be intact. this is a dell computer and it also has the hidden dell partition on it does that need to be recovered also? I REALLY would like to be able to recover this without having to do a clean windows install

please help
thanks

Edited by pr0n, 05 May 2008 - 05:17 PM.

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Do a Repair Install instead of a Clean Install. It will leave your data and most programs intact.

It would be a good idea to back up your data first, just in case. Stuff happens

[Ztruker]

Do a Repair Install instead of a Clean Install. It will leave your data and most programs intact.

It would be a good idea to back up your data first, just in case. Stuff happens

[pr0n]

I don't have the option for repair install would it make a difference with a different windows disk? I don't have the factory dell one

so my question is, is there a way to repair it manually? or perhaps make that repair install come up. I'm willing to do anything to avoid clean install

I tried running sfc.exe from the windows repair CLI but it won't let me. am I doing something wrong or is it just cause I'm in windows repair?

Edited by pr0n, 06 May 2008 - 10:56 AM.

[Ztruker]

Exactly what CD do you have then? If it's a Windows Hologramed CD then it will allow you to do a Repair Install if anmd only if it's at the same or later Service Pack level as XP installed on your hard drive is. So,

What kind of XP CD do you have and is it at the SP1 or SP2 level?
Does it match the XP isntalled on your hard drive ... are they both XP Home or XP Pro?
Are they both at the same SP level?

[pr0n]

the one installed on the computer is Dell's jacked up version of windows with all their junk on it and it's SP2. the CD I have is an OEM cd with sp2. is it that the OEM cd's don't have the repair option?

[Ztruker]

If it's a bootable XP CD, it should have the repair option. Does the CD you have match what is installed? Are they both Home or Pro?