[RKinner]

Sounds promising anyway.

Ron

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I just came back to the computer, and it is still running! By this time, it would have been BSOD'd, so I think that may have actually done it. Seems to be working well, too, without other intermittent errors that were coming up periodically.

I'd say this one is solved. Thank you very much for everything you have done. You guys are a great resource and I highly recommend this site to everyone I know. Thank you!

EDIT:
And now I have a completely unrelated problem.

I installed Linux Mint a while back because it was one of the few distributions that actually worked with my hardware. It installed GRUB as the bootloader and was set to automatically boot into Windows unless I selected Linux. I hadn't actually gone into the Linux environment in several months until I was trying to figure out if my sound card issues were a Windows issue or something else. Since then, I am now getting an "Error Loading OS" on bootup unless I have some sort of bootable disk in the drive at startup. It doesn't even have to necessarily boot from the disk, it just has to be there. I borrowed a Windows install disk and it usually waits for you to press a key to boot the CD. If you don't press the key, GRUB starts as normal. However, if there is no disk, GRUB doesn't start at all; it just comes up as "Error Loading OS."

I have burned the "Super GRUB" CD and have tried to reinstall GRUB to no avail. I tried to use the "fixboot" from Recovery Console to no avail. I tried the "fixmbr" from recovery console but got scared at the "you may lose your partition information" part so I didn't do that one. It really makes no sense to me.

EDIT 2:
I managed to get GRUB working again, but now if I select to boot windows, I get the "NTLDR is missing" message UNLESS I have the installation CD in the drive. If the CD is there, it boots fine. If not, I get the message. I have tried copying the ntldr and ntdetect.com files from the CD to the drive and rebuilt the boot.ini file, but it still comes up that it is missing.

Edited by Oyml, 18 May 2010 - 02:39 PM.

[Oyml]

I just came back to the computer, and it is still running! By this time, it would have been BSOD'd, so I think that may have actually done it. Seems to be working well, too, without other intermittent errors that were coming up periodically.

I'd say this one is solved. Thank you very much for everything you have done. You guys are a great resource and I highly recommend this site to everyone I know. Thank you!

EDIT:
And now I have a completely unrelated problem.

I installed Linux Mint a while back because it was one of the few distributions that actually worked with my hardware. It installed GRUB as the bootloader and was set to automatically boot into Windows unless I selected Linux. I hadn't actually gone into the Linux environment in several months until I was trying to figure out if my sound card issues were a Windows issue or something else. Since then, I am now getting an "Error Loading OS" on bootup unless I have some sort of bootable disk in the drive at startup. It doesn't even have to necessarily boot from the disk, it just has to be there. I borrowed a Windows install disk and it usually waits for you to press a key to boot the CD. If you don't press the key, GRUB starts as normal. However, if there is no disk, GRUB doesn't start at all; it just comes up as "Error Loading OS."

I have burned the "Super GRUB" CD and have tried to reinstall GRUB to no avail. I tried to use the "fixboot" from Recovery Console to no avail. I tried the "fixmbr" from recovery console but got scared at the "you may lose your partition information" part so I didn't do that one. It really makes no sense to me.

EDIT 2:
I managed to get GRUB working again, but now if I select to boot windows, I get the "NTLDR is missing" message UNLESS I have the installation CD in the drive. If the CD is there, it boots fine. If not, I get the message. I have tried copying the ntldr and ntdetect.com files from the CD to the drive and rebuilt the boot.ini file, but it still comes up that it is missing.

Edited by Oyml, 18 May 2010 - 02:39 PM.

[Oyml]

I'm still getting the NTLDR error, but I can get into Windows by using the install CD when booting, so I'm not that worried about it, although it is an annoyance. The original issue was solved, though, so this can be closed.

Again, I appreciate your help in helping me resolve my issues.

[RKinner]

It is possible that the installation of the Recovery Console by Combofix might have broken the Linux dual boot. We don't get many dual boot systems here so never had to worry about it before. You can remove it
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555032
but sounds like you are past that stage already.

I am unfamiliar with your linux booter so can't really tell you what to do. If you were to do fixmbr you would probably lose the linux partition.

What does your boot.ini file say now?

Ron

[Oyml]

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows MediaCenter XP Professional" 
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

I've done a "fixboot" and "fixmbr" from the recovery console and deleted and rebuilt the boot.ini file with "bootcfg /rebuild", so I'm not even really sure why the 2nd and 3rd entries are still there. The Linux partition is actually another drive altogether so I wouldn't really have to worry about losing it, and if I did manage to lose the Linux booter, it really isn't a big deal to reinstall it.

I'll try removing the recovery console, though, and see if that does it.