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Vista to XP problem


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#1
noobzcrack

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I had this great idea, that I could just restore my OS from Vista to Xp, so that it would run faster. When I restored it, I couldn't install the wireless drivers. Then my computer wasn't able to control the sound, and only about 50% worked. Then, hours later, I get an error message when I try to start my computer. It just says NTLDR IS MISSING. PRESS CTRL - ALT - DELETE TO RESTART. But when I restart my computer, I get the same message. I don't have the XP restore CD, (it's my friend's, and I restored my pc when I visited him, on vacation). But what shall I do? I just found out that my PC has the Vista Restore on its HDD, so there is no way of getting it, it's probably deleted anyways.

What shall I do? I have a Compaq Presario CQ50.
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#2
noobzcrack

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Anyone??
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#3
rshaffer61

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Hello noobzcrack.... Welcome to GeeksToGo,, Look around and enjoy the forums. We are all volunteers so please understand we are not always here and it may take some time to respond to your post. :) :) :)

Can you post the make and model of your system if it is a name brand system?

If you have Windows CD...

1. Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD.
2. Once you have booted from CD, do NOT select the option that states: Press F2 to initiate the Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool.
You’re going to proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:

Posted Image

3. After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (typically number “1″).
Select the installation number, and hit Enter.
If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit Enter (if asked for the password, and you don't know it, you're out of luck).
You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:

Posted Image

4. There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair any of the issues I noted in the opening of this guide.
I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps.
NOTE. Make sure, you press Enter after each command. Make sure, all commands are exact, including "spaces".
These commands are as follows:

CD..
ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini
ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini
ATRIB -R C:\\boot.ini
del boot.ini
BOOTCFG /Rebuild


Note about the above command.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD command which searches for pre-existing installations of Windows XP and rebuilds sundry essential components of the Windows operating system, recompiles the BOOT.INI file and corrects a litany of common Windows errors.
It is very important that you do one or both of the following two things:
A.) Every Windows XP owner must use /FASTDETECT as OS Load Option when the rebuild process is finalizing.
B.) If you are the owner of a CPU featuring Intel’s XD or AMD’s NX buffer overflow protection, you must also use /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN as an OS Load Option.
For the Enter Load Identifier portion of this command, you should enter the name of the operating system you have installed.
If, for example, you are using Windows XP Home, you could type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition for the identifier (it's not crucial, however what the name is, as long, as it's meaningful).
Here is your computer screen:

Posted Image

5. Following command verifies the integrity of the hard drive containing the Windows XP installation. While this step is not an essential function in our process, it’s still good to be sure that the drive is physically capable of running windows, in that it contains no bad sectors or other corruptions that might be the culprit:

CHKDSK /R

6. This last command writes a new boot sector to the hard drive and cleans up all the loose ends we created by rebuilding the BOOT.INI file and the system files. When the Windows Recovery Console asks you if you are Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C: ? just hit “Y”, then Enter to confirm your decision:

FIXBOOT

7. It’s time to reboot your PC by typing
EXIT
and pressing Enter.

With any luck, your PC will boot successfully into Windows XP as if your various DLL, Hive, EXE and NTLDR errors never existed.
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#4
Murray S.

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Howdy and welcome to CTH:

Firstly, you used your friend's XP cd to install XP on your system. That was illegal and against Microsoft's EULA. As per our Terms of Use when you joined..

We will NOT help anyone we suspect of having obtained their software illegally.

As of now, I suggest you take your computer to a Toshiba repair depot or from whereever you purchased it and have them fix it. Hopefully, it is still under warranty.

Oh ya, you probably voided the warranty when you removed Vista and went to XP.

Murray
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