Operating System not Found Message

[khamrick]

I have been running Windows XP Home for over a year without problems. Yesterday, I got the "operating system not found" message when trying to boot. I am running Norton Antivirus 2003 and haven't noticed any viruses found.

If I boot from the Norton AV CD, it boots Windows 98 and cannot see the NTFS disk. If I run an older version of PQ Magic, it can see my second disk and its partitions which are FAT32. It can see the NTFS (XP disk), but since it is an older version, cannot do anything with it.

My XP system came installed on my PC and I only have the XP restore CDs. The restore CDs will cause me to lose all my data and applications if I do a CD restore.

Does anyone know any method to try to get around this. Is my MBR corrupted? If so, how can I repair it?

If I do have to do a restore, is there some way I can boot up some system that can see both the NTFS disk and my FAT32 partitions on my second disk? I would like to copy some data from my XP NTFS disk to the second disk before losing it all when I do the restore. I realize I should have been saving data to my second disk in the past, but i didn't.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[johnodq]

Try the following link to help resolve the problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308041

---------------
Johnodq
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[wolluf]

Without an install CD your options are more limited.

One thing - get Ntfs for win98 from here

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfswin98.shtml.

It will give you read access to your ntfs filestore from win98 (it does need some files from XP - if you can't find them on your restore CD, post back & I'll see if I can put them on a website for you to download).

You could also download app from here

http://www.bootdisk.com/original.htm

which will create the 6 boot floppies to start Xp install. You can use this to get into recovery console (

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654),

where you could try running chkdsk and fixboot.

 

[linney]

321626 - "Operating System Not Found" Error Message When You Start the Computer.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321626&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Q305595 - HOW TO: Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows XP.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q305/5/95.asp

Creating a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition (Q311073)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q311/0/73.asp

NTFSDOS.EXE is a file system driver for DOS/Windows
that is able to recognize and mount NTFS drives for transparent access. It makes NTFS drives appear indistinguishable from standard FAT drives, providing the ability to navigate, view and execute programs on them from DOS or from Windows. There are two versions a READ only (which will copy files from NTFS) and is free. Or a more
expensive READ and WRITE version for writing to NTFS.

The latest version of NTFSDOS can be found at

http://www.sysinternals.com

 

[khamrick]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I was able to obtain a copy of XP/Pro for a temporary install to troubleshoot this problem. I went into Recovery Console and ran "chkdsk /p" and found no problems. Tried "fixboot" and "fixmbr" to no avail.

I temporarily installed a copy of xp/pro on my second disk and was able to boot from it. The XP/home partition on my first disk is visible after booting xp/pro on the second disk. It gets a drive letter of D: and appears intact. I can copy my DATA from the original partition to my second drive which is a relief.

The first disk seems fine, with the exception that it appears invisible during boot time.

I tried to make a copy of the original partition from disk 1 to disk 2 using PQMagic 7.0. I got an "Error 1555 Internal file number does not match position" message and the copy failed. The Powerquest website suggested running "chkdsk /p " from the Recovery console multiple times. I did this about 3 times and was able to copy the partition to the second drive.

I made the copy an "active primary" partition on disk 2 and tried to reboot. A little way into the boot process I got the following blue screen error:

STOP: 0x0000008e (0xc0000005,0xfc3166b,oxf7b52760,ox00000000) FS_REC.SYS - address 7fc3166b base at f7c31000, datestamp 367d8361

I used my pqmagoc recovery diskettes to reboot and made my xp/pro temporary partition "active" and am able to boot from it. I would like to get my original XP/Home partition copy on the second disk to work so it will be at the same place in time as to when I experienced the original problem.


By the way, I tried to "Restore XP/Home" from my three CD set that came with my computer. This restore did not "see" my disk 1, and ended up formatting and restoring to my disk 2. So now I have my "restored XP/home system" on my disk 2 which I moved to the right via PQMagic. I have since recopied my original partition from disk 1 to the beginning of disk 2. This is the one I am now having the problem at bootime (FS_REC.SYS problem). Again, I can make my "restored xp/home partition on disk 2" active and it will boot.

I would like to get past the (FS_REC.SYS) problem on my "original xp/home copy on disk 2" and worry about what is wrong with my disk 1 later (not seen during boot process).

By the way, I created a FAT partition on disk 1 and installed PQ Bootmagic there. It is "not seen" during boot sequence either. Disk 1 seems invisible during the boot process, but is visible and drive letters assigned after booting from disk 2.

Sorry for all the rambling, but I am trying to give as much info as possible. Again, I have 2 problems...(1) disk 1 invisible during the boot sequence, and (2) the FS_REC.SYS problem when trying to boot the copy of my original system on disk 2.

Thanks, Ken

 

[wolluf]

Bit confused by your last post. If you've got everything you need off the first disk, have you tried disconnecting the second disk & just trying machine with first disk?

From your 1st post, I assume you had been running ok with 2 disks for some time. But, I was just wondering if you checked/changed jumper settings on first disk when you installed second. Some disks have different settings for sole master and master with slave present. Also, the 'wrong' setting can work, but not be stable.

 

[khamrick]

Hi Wolluf,

Yes, I had been running with 2 disks for over a year without problems and have made no changes.

I will try disconnecting the second disk and see if the first one will be recognized though I doubt it. I'll have to wait until tonight as that system is at home.

Afterward, if that don't work, I'll switch drives (make my current #2 drive #1, and vice/versa. The original #1 disk may work OK as a #2 drive if I just use it for data and backups of the other disk (i.e. don't try to boot anything on it).

Thanks, Ken