"cannot load operating system" error message 1

[joey1234]

1.4 ghz amd 512 memory 60 gig hd win2k. it is a generic computer built by a friend. i have had a few problems with it. my original version of win2k became infected with a virus that wouldnt open executibles. i reinstalled win2k, but i installed a new copy so i wouldnt have to format my hd. then for some reason on that windows my internet stopped working. so i reinstalled it again. (thats 3 versions of win2k on 1 computer, i know this is not good but i have been procrastinating buying another hd and backing up all of my important files (movies, music) and reformatting my original.i recently tried to install windows xp. (i downloaded it off kazaa, yes i know this is illegal and this is the only time i did it, but i really didnt want to spent the money. i dont feel guilty ripping off bill gates either) I upgraded the 3rd version of my win2k to xp. It worked great for about a day and i tried to download sp1. (didnt work, obviously). later on that day i installed gta3. while i was playing it i got the blue screen that said that my video card went into an infinite loop and it was dumping my phisical memory to disk. it restarted and i got an error saying "cannot load operating system" or something like that. nothing would work. i put in my win2k boot disk and tried to re install win2k, but it said the partitioned space was damaged and could not be used. unsure what to do, i went upstairs and grabbed the 4 gig hd out of my old computer, put it as the master hd, and the 60 gig as the slave,and installed win2k on the 4 gig hd. when it was done installing i went into windows explorer and it said " disk in drive d ( the 60 gig)is not formatted, format it now?" under the dos prompt (cmd.exe) it says "the volume does not contain a recognized file system, make sure all req'd system file drivers are loaded and that the volume isnt corrupted" im probobly going to have to format my hard drive unless i can get some help here. i really wish i could backup some of the files that were on the hd without spending 1000 dollars on drivesavers.
i would use system restore, but i cant get in to xp. please help! (and please dont use TOO many big words because what i have posted is pretty much all i know. :^)

 

[wolluf]

You could try recovery console on the 60GB disk - its got a version of chkdsk, if recovery console can find any of your installations. Boot from your XP CD (I assume you wrote one from Kazaa file) with just the 60GB drive connected. Choose repair using recovery console - if it can read the disk it should find your 3 installations and ask you to choose which one to log onto (XP recovery console will find 2k & NT installs too). Select one and enter administrator password (if it can't find any, your drive is obviously in a bad way). Type help for list of commands (or use win2k help about recovery console before you do this - could print it - very similar to XP's version). You could try the fixboot command (your boot sector may be damaged) and the chkdsk command to see if it can find and repair damage.

If that's no good, could try a recovery program - fron the 4GB installation. Here's a free one (but if you're using NTFS and the partition on 60GB is damaged it probably won't be able to read it) -

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

There are better ones that cost - try Google to find them (somebody else on these forums found one which recovered all his data from a damaged NTFS partition - it was a thread I answered but can't find it now! - recent - last couple of weeks).

 

[ciscogeek36]

windows xp should be done via a clean install anyway. i've seen too many problems arise when someone tries to upgrade an earlier version to win xp. ya it works at first, but there always seems to have something go wrong eventually.

you may try booting to safe mode and see if your drive is there. if you can't get to your files to back them up, you may just have to eat this one and wipe the drive then format it. partition the drive for your movies and music, and i'd definately add some type of redundancy to the next drive; i.e. goback, or ghost your drive...there are tons of ways to make sure that if this occurs again you can at least get back into your system...thanks