[genuineheart]

I accidentally changed info on the boot startup notepad section and under partition it had a 1 and i changed it to a 2 and when i restarted it it gave me an error message and could not log onto windows section. now i tried hitting f10 to system recovery but i think it was disabled somehow by another person preventing me from doing any recoveries only f1 setup works and i dont have any recovery discs. is there any help for me?

Edited by genuineheart, 18 August 2009 - 01:53 PM.

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You could try to download UBUNTU LINUX which is a free operating system that runs off a cd/dvd once you burn the iso. Just set your bios to boot off cd/dvd first. Than once it runs the virtual OS it'll let you check all files on your drives hard drives and edit them. Pull up the notepad in UBUNTU and change whatever you like, save it and you should be good to go. Just make sure it saves the file in the same extention filename. If your talking about the boot.ini file than yah try that!

www.ubuntu.com

Edited by superstar, 12 August 2009 - 09:01 PM.

[superstar]

You could try to download UBUNTU LINUX which is a free operating system that runs off a cd/dvd once you burn the iso. Just set your bios to boot off cd/dvd first. Than once it runs the virtual OS it'll let you check all files on your drives hard drives and edit them. Pull up the notepad in UBUNTU and change whatever you like, save it and you should be good to go. Just make sure it saves the file in the same extention filename. If your talking about the boot.ini file than yah try that!

www.ubuntu.com

Edited by superstar, 12 August 2009 - 09:01 PM.

[genuineheart]

okay so all i have to do is download Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop (the latest version): Includes the latest enhancements and is maintained until 2010 and take it from there. or is there a specific file i need to download seperately? i really dont know computer terms very well so when you say ISO what do you mean?

[genuineheart]

wait will this replace my windows xp?

[wannabe1]

Hello genuineheart...

Download RC.iso and burn it to a cd as an ISO image. You may need a burning tool like ISO Recorder to do this...be sure to get the version for the operating system you'll be creating the disk on.

Boot to the RC.iso cd. If your machine is set to boot to the optical drive first, you should see a prompt on the screen to "Press any key to boot to CD"...press the space bar. If you are unable to boot to the optical drive, let me know so we can change the boot priority in BIOS Setup so it will.

At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press R to start Recovery Console. Choose the installation to be repaired by number (usually 1) and press "Enter".

When you are asked for the Administrator password, leave it blank and press "Enter".

At the command prompt, type bootcfg /list and press "Enter" to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file. At this point you may get a message telling you that the boot.ini file does not exist. The next step will correct this error.

Type bootcfg /rebuild and press "Enter" to repair it. This will scan your hard dives for installations of Windows XP, 2000 or NT and display the results. Follow the on-screen instructions to add your Windows installations to the boot.ini file. Those steps will be:

• Total Identified Windows Installs: 1
  (1) C:\Windows
  Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)...type Y and press "Enter".
• At the "Enter Load Identifier" prompt, type the name of your operating system...Windows XP Home Edition (or "Windows XP Professional" if that's what you have installed.)
  or Microsoft Windows XP Professional and press "Enter".
• At the "Enter OS Load options" prompt, type /fastdetect, and then press "Enter".

Note: The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.

Take out the cd, type exit, and press "Enter".

The machine should try to boot to the Windows installation you chose.

Let me know how it goes...

wannabe1

[genuineheart]

ok looks like im gonna have to hit the nearest walmart to buy discs. will have to continue tomorrow then. will let you know the status thanks.

[genuineheart]

I got up to the point where it says bootcfg /rebuild then i got an error message saying this- failed to successfully scandisks for windows installation. This entry may be caused by a corrupt file system which would prevent bootcfg from successfully scanning. use CHKDSK to detect any disc errors.

so i did the chkdsk and this is what it said- The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.

thats where it ended. what do I do next?

[wannabe1]

At the Recovery Console prompt, type chkdsk /r and press "Enter". This will run a thorough check on the file system and try to recover any errors it encounters. Be patient, this is a very long test. It may appear to stall...or even to back up...let it finish.

Once back at the prompt, type exit and press "Enter". Let the machine try to boot normally.

If no joy, try the bootcfg /rebuild command again.

[genuineheart]

i did what you said and it still ends up saying the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems

[genuineheart]

okay i finally got a disc where i was able to do what i needed to do but where it said type operating system i accidentally didnt remember my system name and entered the wrong name my system is Windows XP media center edition. now when it boots up i show 2 in my list the microsoft windows xp home edition and the real name of the system. how do i fix that and stop it from starting at that point? also it didnt do a complete recovery it just fixed what i needed to get back on the system. it shows f10 for complete recovery but it doesnt work when i hit it.

[wannabe1]

Sorry I've not been on much the last few days. Bresnan (ISP) has been having some real problems in my area. Actually...a three state area.

Can you boot to either choice? If not, which one works?

Click Start, right click on My Computer, and choose "Properties". Click on the "Advanced" tab. In the "Startup and Recovery" section, click on the "Settings" button. In the window that opens, click on the "Edit" button...a notepad window will open (boot.ini). Copy the contents of the notepad window and paste it here for me.

[genuineheart]

the windows xp media center edition one does not work.

this is the copy of notepad-
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="windows XP Home Edition " /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows="windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[wannabe1]

Copy the boot information below and paste it in place of the information in your boot.ini file. Click "File" on the toolbar and choose "Save". Close all open windows and reboot.

Let it try to boot to the Media Center install. If it boots successfully, go back to the boot.ini file as you did before, remove the bottom line, and save it just like last time. Close all open windows and reboot....it should boot directly to Media Center.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="windows XP Home Edition " /fastdetect

Let me know how it goes.

[genuineheart]

it worked YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! You Are Awesome Thanks soo much.

[wannabe1]

You are quite welcome...