Bad Boot Sector error!!!! HELP!!!!

[Thyezer]

I was trying to merge my C & D drives together using PartionMagic, WITHOUT first making a backup.(I KNOW, IKNOW)
Upon completion..... I cannot boot my laptop. I have tried to repair with XP PRO disk, but I don't know what to do? How do I access my folders and possibly save some of my smaller files to disk...or onto the network?

Please help!!!!

 

[toolman59]

Thyezer

Some time back I had a problem when using PMagic and Bootmagic, Bcastner pointed me in the right direction which immediately solved my problem. The thread was

779-638110


Toolman59

 

[gpalmer711]

Thread779-638110


Greg Palmer

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Any feed back is appreciated.

 

[SYAR2003]

Edit the boot.ini
Make it like this:

[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 = "Boot from partition 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS = "Boot from partition 2" /fastdetect



Try booting with the different choices .

 

[Thyezer]

how can i edit my boot.ini file? I copied it into notepad...put it to floppy...then what...I am in the recovery part of XP and I don't know if I can move that file from floppy to the correct location..or how to that is?

I Made rescue disks for PM8 and tried loading with them:
It says:
PARTION TYPE SIZE MB USED UNUSED STATUS PRI/LOG
*:Local Disk NTFS 30004.2 6159.6 23844.5 Active pri
*: Ext 8142.3 0 0 None pri
*: Unall 8142.3 0 0 None Log
*: Unall 7.8 0 0 None Pri

Should I mess with this PM8 stuff...or just try copying over the boot.ini file? Or both?

Thanks

 

[JasonDoran]

Thyezer,

Are you able to take the HDD out of the Laptop and connect it to a normal IDE port in another PC. You will have to use a connector to allow you to hook your 2 and a half inch Laptop drive into a normal IDE port on a desktop pc motherboard. This will allow you to connect the drive as a second drive and then browse to it via explorer.

If you can do this you may be able to browse your files and copy them onto another disk. Failing that, I think that you may be out of luck...

 

[Thyezer]

I thought about that...If that is my only option...I will try it...but I would need to purchase this connector. ANyone have anything else I can try...or list how to copy the boot.ini file over?

Thanks

 

[Thyezer]

I now at reboot get:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

Can I get this file from the XP CD?

How do I add that to my computer from the recovery program?

 

[Freestone]

Perhaps try creating and booting the NTFS Reader DOS Boot Disk from the following link:

http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm.

If this gives you access to your data, then from your PM8 listing, it appears that you have about 8GB of unallocated space from which you could create a FAT32 drive and use the above program to copy data from the NTFS Drive to the newly created drive.

 

[SYAR2003]

Seems you have 2 primary partitions .
One NTFS with size 30GB
One 8GB that is extended .

Your old setup had two disks
c: partition1
d: partition2
Your old boot.ini
was located on d: and pointed to multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

Now you merged them into one partition nr.1
so the boot ini in that system is pointing to a
partition that does not exist .

How was the sizes in the old configuration .
Did the merging complete , and failed during restart .
Or did it fail in the middle of the prossess .
(i wonder about the 8GB partition left there ,if this
is a part of your D: )

SYAR

 

[SYAR2003]

If datarecovery is the only way out .
I suggest using pebuilder
to make a &quot;ultimate boot cd&quot; that runs Windows PE from cdrom .
Read/writes on NTFS partitions ,networking and more.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Has to build the ISO image and burn it to a cd using nero .

SYAR

 

[wudan]

I think the contents of your d partition got transferred to a folder in the c partition.
So I guess your boot.ini if at all it exists in c partition should point to that folder

case 1
[boot loader]
timeout = 30
default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\foldername]\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\[foldername]\WINDOWS = &quot;Windows XP&quot; /fastdetect

[foldername]=the name of the folder where the d partition was moved to...

Psst...did the PM ask you to enter a folder name when you chose to merge..I think you are required to enter the folder name if you can remember...
case 1. did you merge d to c - if so then d will become a folder of c
case 2. did you merge c to d - if so then c will become a folder of d


Sorry if I am wrong...


Dan. W. -)

 

[Thyezer]

Dan-
I took partition F and merged it into partition C
It was moved into a folder called &quot;fdrive&quot;

I think my problem was that I was assuming that C partion was my boot partition and it wasn't. I will try your boot.ini idea...

Thanks

 

[Thyezer]

well....
I creted the PE BUILDER disk and booted into my laptop. I can see that I hace a c directory
THERE IS NO WINDOWS dir!!!!!

I checked in the before mentioned ddrive and fdrive folders (merged partitions) and there is nothing in those?

F drive used to be my boot drive and now it looks empty.
C drive is what I merged it all to and it has NO WINDOWS folder?
Can anyone suggest anything to fix this system...or am I only going to be able to manually transfer data away and format again , install XPPRO?

Thanks

 

[wudan]

does fdrive contain anything....related to windows installation...

Could it be hidden...

Maybe now c drive got to become the Active partition...

Situations doesn't look good

Dan. W. -)

 

[wolluf]

Recover the data and clean reinstall. Odds are that even if you do ever 'recover' the original installation and get it to boot, you'll have ongoing problems - so best to bite the bullet now (you could spend a long time trying otherwise).

Just my opinion of course!