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windows wont boot?!


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#1
Lankan007

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Hey. I have an HP Pavilion a630n and me being stupid, I decided to erase the HP_Recovery partition to gain some space, using Partition Magic. Then i joined it with the only other partition left. After that was done, my computer restarted and I got this message "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key" Now it wont boot into windows. And i have important info on it that i need on the computer. help?
Just to let you know..I dont have any recovery CDs. But I do have the XP CD.
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#2
NeonFx

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Hi there :) let's try these instructions by Broni:

Try a whole procedure...

If you have Windows CD...(if you don't have Windows CD, scroll down)

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 your problem..
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
ATTRIB -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.



If you don't have Windows CD...
Download Windows Recovery Console: http://www.thecomput...om/files/rc.iso
Download, and install free Imgburn: http://www.imgburn.c...hp?act=download
Using Imgburn, burn rc.iso to a CD.
Boot to the CD...let it finish loading.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
Then, follow instructions from Step #3 above.
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#3
Lankan007

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i tried those steps and this is what i got:
CD..
The command is no recognized
ATTRIB -H C:\boot.ini
The sysem cannot find the file or directory specified
I get the same thing for all the ATTRIB commands
Then for bootcfg /rebuild
Error: Failed to successfully scan disks for windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk errors.
Then i did chkdsk /R which took forever and it said that it fixed one or more errors
then i did fixboot and i got
"FIXBOOT cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid"
ityped exit and it restarted to show me the same message
"Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key"
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#4
happyrock

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keep running chkdsk /r until it doesn't find and fix any errors...it may take several tries
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#5
NeonFx

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I don't think running chkdsk again will help. It seems as though in the process of trying to join the two partitions, the windows one was also changed, making the only possible option now a backup using a live CD that has a deleted file restore feature and a reformat/reinstall.

Edited by NeonFx, 12 August 2009 - 11:44 AM.

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#6
Lankan007

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Can you expand on that NeonFX
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#7
NeonFx

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Go ahead and run chkdsk /r again until you get no more errors, as this is supposed to be done anyway. I didn't mean to tell you not to do it.

It'll give me time to come up with instructions for you.
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#8
NeonFx

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Actually, Partition Magic comes with a Partition "Undelete" feature.


Boot into the partition magic program then:

1 Select the unallocated space to be searched.

2 Click Partition ➤ Undelete.


IMPORTANT! You can undelete a partition only if no other operations are pending on
the unallocated space selected. If any operations are pending, the
Undelete icon and menu option will be dimmed (inaccessible).

The Undelete dialog appears, and the selected unallocated space is searched.

All primary and logical partitions that can be undeleted are displayed in the scrollable
list. If no partitions are found within the unallocated space or none can be undeleted, a
message appears indicating no partitions can be undeleted.


3 Within the scrollable list, click the checkbox of the partition you wish to undelete.
While it is possible to undelete more than one partition at once, Norton recommends
that you undelete partitions one at a time, beginning with the one that you want most.
Doing so helps ensure the integrity of the data within the partition.

4 Click OK.


I got this from the partition magic user guide found HERE


If you successfully restore the partition, you might have to follow the instructions from Broni's guide in my first response to get your computer to boot into windows again.
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#9
Lankan007

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how do i get to partition magic if i cant even boot into windows?
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#10
NeonFx

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The CD your program came on is bootable, meaning that as soon as you turn on your computer, if you press the key that is indicated at the bottom of the screen you will get the option to boot from your CD.

If you do not have the CD, then we will have to go with my earlier recommendation and create our own bootable CD.

Download the Ultimate Boot CD ISO image from HERE

After doing so you will need to burn it to a Blank CD. To do so you can follow one of the various tutorials on the UBCD website HERE

When you have the CD ready you should boot into it and you will get a blue screen with various options. Using your arrows navigate to "Filesystem Tools" and then to "Partition Tools". Select "Active@ Partition Recovery", a partition recovery program.

Use this to recover the partition that has been lost.


Edit: you can also use Partition Saving to restore a partition. It is also included in the UBCD

Edited by NeonFx, 12 August 2009 - 02:25 PM.

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#11
Lankan007

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Hey i downloaded another version of UBCD and i couldnt find the partition tools there..but i did find a tool called Handy Recovery..which now i am using to back up everything..i want to thank you for helping me throughout this process..once i am done backing everything up..i am going to partition my 160GB hard drive into 3 parts..one part for XP another part for windows 7 and another part just for backup
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#12
NeonFx

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I think it's excellent you chose that route :) Your computer will be like new with two clean OS installations and you get to try out the new 7 :)
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#13
Lankan007

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one quick question..first i would have to insert the xp CD and make the partitions..then install xp onto one of the partitions..then insert windows 7 dvd and install?
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#14
rshaffer61

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XP on one partition first
Windows 7 on second partition then.
This way XP boot.ini will setup the dual boot option for you.
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#15
NeonFx

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That is correct. Windows 7 will automatically detect that XP is already installed and will take care of everything. You just need to have the partitions made before installing 7.
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