Guest ge Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 I have a Fujitsu laptop with preloaded XP home edition, I also have a partition dump image of the C drive in another 2.5" drive. File system is NTFS. Due to unknown reason, my boot sector in my Laptop was wiped, the drive is now shown as unformated (the NTFS indicator was wiped) therefore the drive cannot boot up. I tried to use my backup drive, but cannot boot up either, the symptom is that after Windows XP home sign is displayed and the moving bar is displayed for about 5 seconds, the screen turned black (no curser), the disk active display on my laptop lighted for a second and then everything stays as is (dark, no disk activity) for hours. There is no response to key board or ctr-alt-del actions. I have to do a hard power off by hard pressing the power button. The next time, when I tried to boot up, the safe boot screen will come up, to boot in Normal windows mode will give me the same symptom as above. To boot in safe mode without any driver, the system display loading about 15 drivers and then stop (dead stop no disk activity) I tried all mode of safe boot but encountered same symptom. Questions: 1. Is there a way to log (or to see) driver loading to see where did it stop? May be copying a similar driver (the one where it stopped and the one after that) from my previous backup image may cure the problem. Any one can suggest a better cure? 2. Is there a way to cure my wiped out disk? (My backup disk and the laptop disk are of different size so a direct overlay of the boot image will not work, I am thinking about calculating the address using the disk size, but am not sure how to do it) 3. The restore CD that comes with the laptop can only restore the system to the image when it was brand new. That means I have to reinstall everything I did on my laptop for the past 2 years, for some of the programs I cannot find the installation disk. Is there a way to install repair (to my backup) without wiping out everything? I do not have other installation disk other than the restore CD from Fujitsu, does it mean I have to purchase another license from MS? Will the upgrade XP home version work, or it need to be a full version? (Note I already have an OEM license and key) Any suggestions or comments
Guest John John Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 Re: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall ge wrote: > I have a Fujitsu laptop with preloaded XP home edition, I also have a > partition dump image of the C drive in another 2.5" drive. File system is > NTFS. > Due to unknown reason, my boot sector in my Laptop was wiped, the drive is > now shown as unformated (the NTFS indicator was wiped) therefore the drive > cannot boot up. > > (sniped) > > 2. Is there a way to cure my wiped out disk? (My backup disk and the laptop > disk are of different size so a direct overlay of the boot image will not > work, I am thinking about calculating the address using the disk size, but am > not sure how to do it) You might try using PtEdit and see if you can change the partition flag back to NTFS. Boot the laptop with a Windows 98 boot disk and run PtEdit from there. ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/ptedit.zip The 32-bit PtEdit version is here: ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip John
Guest nass Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 RE: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall "ge" wrote: > I have a Fujitsu laptop with preloaded XP home edition, I also have a > partition dump image of the C drive in another 2.5" drive. File system is > NTFS. > Due to unknown reason, my boot sector in my Laptop was wiped, the drive is > now shown as unformated (the NTFS indicator was wiped) therefore the drive > cannot boot up. > > I tried to use my backup drive, but cannot boot up either, the symptom is > that after Windows XP home sign is displayed and the moving bar is displayed > for about 5 seconds, the screen turned black (no curser), the disk active > display on my laptop lighted for a second and then everything stays as is > (dark, no disk activity) for hours. There is no response to key board or > ctr-alt-del actions. I have to do a hard power off by hard pressing the > power button. > The next time, when I tried to boot up, the safe boot screen will come up, > to boot in Normal windows mode will give me the same symptom as above. > To boot in safe mode without any driver, the system display loading about 15 > drivers and then stop (dead stop no disk activity) > I tried all mode of safe boot but encountered same symptom. > > Questions: > > 1. Is there a way to log (or to see) driver loading to see where did it > stop? May be copying a similar driver (the one where it stopped and the one > after that) from my previous backup image may cure the problem. > Any one can suggest a better cure? > > 2. Is there a way to cure my wiped out disk? (My backup disk and the laptop > disk are of different size so a direct overlay of the boot image will not > work, I am thinking about calculating the address using the disk size, but am > not sure how to do it) > > 3. The restore CD that comes with the laptop can only restore the system to > the image when it was brand new. That means I have to reinstall everything I > did on my laptop for the past 2 years, for some of the programs I cannot find > the installation disk. Is there a way to install repair (to my backup) > without wiping out everything? I do not have other installation disk other > than the restore CD from Fujitsu, does it mean I have to purchase another > license from MS? Will the upgrade XP home version work, or it need to be a > full version? (Note I already have an OEM license and key) > > Any suggestions or comments Well, it sound to me your Built-in Video is damaged or corrupt completely, it is hard with Laptop to tell the user Open this and undo this, Laptops difficult than PC desktops. If you have a valuable Data, best if you take it to a Data recovery specialist to recover your data First, then you can consider next step, Reinstall if the built-in Video not an issue or better if you got a new Laptop!. Did you tried last good configuration?. HTH. nass ---- http://www.nasstec.co.uk
Guest ge Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 RE: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall It is not hardware. I tried the recovery CD from Fujisu (which wiped out all my installed programs and data) and the raw XP home worked perfect. This is not a hardware issue. "nass" wrote: > > Well, it sound to me your Built-in Video is damaged or corrupt completely, > it is hard with Laptop to tell the user Open this and undo this, Laptops > difficult than PC desktops. > If you have a valuable Data, best if you take it to a Data recovery > specialist to recover your data First, then you can consider next step, > Reinstall if the built-in Video not an issue or better if you got a new > Laptop!. > Did you tried last good configuration?. > HTH. > nass > ---- > http://www.nasstec.co.uk
Guest nass Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 RE: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall When is that? two years ago or recent?. "ge" wrote: > It is not hardware. I tried the recovery CD from Fujisu (which wiped out all > my installed programs and data) and the raw XP home worked perfect. This is > not a hardware issue. > > "nass" wrote: > > > > > Well, it sound to me your Built-in Video is damaged or corrupt completely, > > it is hard with Laptop to tell the user Open this and undo this, Laptops > > difficult than PC desktops. > > If you have a valuable Data, best if you take it to a Data recovery > > specialist to recover your data First, then you can consider next step, > > Reinstall if the built-in Video not an issue or better if you got a new > > Laptop!. > > Did you tried last good configuration?. > > HTH. > > nass > > ---- > > http://www.nasstec.co.uk
Guest ge Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 Re: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall John, Thanks for the suggestion. I have checekd the boot sector with Acronis disk editor and it has been wiped mostly with 00. It is not simply just affecting the NTFS flag. I do not have any experience using PtEdit, will it automatically calculate disk locations using the different sizes in both the cloned disk and the damaged disk? Note I only have a cloned partition (backup) which does not boot either and do not have any Norton ghost backup. (I also have the Norton systems work 2006 and Ghost 10 programs) "John John" wrote: > You might try using PtEdit and see if you can change the partition flag > back to NTFS. Boot the laptop with a Windows 98 boot disk and run > PtEdit from there. > > ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/ptedit.zip > > John > >
Guest ge Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 RE: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall The crash was last week when I was travelling. The restore to original factory condition and proof that it was not hardware was yesterday. I wiped the restored to factory condition already because it required me to install everything again. "nass" wrote: > > When is that? two years ago or recent?. >
Guest John John Posted August 9, 2007 Posted August 9, 2007 Re: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall No, ptedit will not do that. There is a copy of the boot sector stored at the end of the volume, it can be retrieved and copied back to the correct boot sector location. If you want to try this see here: Recovering NTFS Boot Sector on NTFS Partitions http://support.microsoft.com/kb/153973 Brain surgery or rocket science is nothing compared to the above instructions ;-) There are certainly other utilities that can do this in a much easier manner but I can recommend any as such. Any good recovery software should be able to find and copy the boot sector from the end of the disk. If you can't do anything with the disk you may want to try to try to copy the clone and try to get it to boot. John ge wrote: > John, > Thanks for the suggestion. I have checekd the boot sector with Acronis > disk editor and it has been wiped mostly with 00. It is not simply just > affecting the NTFS flag. > I do not have any experience using PtEdit, will it automatically calculate > disk locations using the different sizes in both the cloned disk and the > damaged disk? > Note I only have a cloned partition (backup) which does not boot either and > do not have any Norton ghost backup. (I also have the Norton systems work > 2006 and Ghost 10 programs) > > "John John" wrote: > > >>You might try using PtEdit and see if you can change the partition flag >>back to NTFS. Boot the laptop with a Windows 98 boot disk and run >>PtEdit from there. >> >>ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/ptedit.zip >> >>John >> >>
Guest Jim Posted August 10, 2007 Posted August 10, 2007 Re: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall "ge" <ge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:4F12F647-6F3B-45BF-8F69-884CAC70271D@microsoft.com... > The crash was last week when I was travelling. The restore to original > factory condition and proof that it was not hardware was yesterday. I > wiped > the restored to factory condition already because it required me to > install > everything again. > > > "nass" wrote: > >> >> When is that? two years ago or recent?. >> > Does you laptop have a repair partition or does it have a restore CD? If it has a repair partition and if you you mean by "wiped the restored to factory condition" that you removed this partition, you shot yourself in the foot. If in addition, you removed the restored to factory condition version of XP from the OS partition, you have left yourself with few options. You can try to get the vendor to send you a CD which will restore the computer to factory condition. At least this option will save you time because you will not need to install the drivers for the custom hardware that is now found on most laptops. You will still need to install all programs that you have added since you bought the computer. You can also buy an XP CD and install XP on your computer. However, you will still be left with the problem of finding the drivers for the custom hardware. And you will need to install all programs that you need. You may find it less costly and certainly less time consuming to replace the computer. Jim
Guest ge Posted August 10, 2007 Posted August 10, 2007 Re: Cannot boot up - how to reinstall I am trying various options with the partition backups of both my crashed disk and the "orginal" backups. I wipe off and recopy the partion after an experiment which does not work but this does not affect the original copies. I know what I am doing and I try not to shoot myself in the foot. To answer your question, my laptop does not have a repair partition, it comes with C and D and D is a backup of of the exfactory C and I have not used D from day one (if D is the repair partion you are talking about). I tried the CD from the vendor and it restores everything to the exfactory condition (it does not have the repair install option and does not contain the Recovery Console) and this is not what I want. I want to do a repair install keeping all my files and programs like a version upgrade but the vendor does not provide (or support) that option, and I do not have a retail CD to do that. (To buy one means I am paying 2 licenses for XP on the same computer) I am now trying to download the 6 bootable set up diskette and see if it works (as suggested by the tech support of the vendor, but I doubt it). Another option is to upgrade to XP pro or Vista and pay for the upgrade. I am not so worried about drivers, XP and Vista are quite smart on plug and play, is that true? Any more suggestions? "Jim" wrote: > > "ge" <ge@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:4F12F647-6F3B-45BF-8F69-884CAC70271D@microsoft.com... > > The crash was last week when I was travelling. The restore to original > > factory condition and proof that it was not hardware was yesterday. I > > wiped > > the restored to factory condition already because it required me to > > install > > everything again. > > > > > > "nass" wrote: > > > >> > >> When is that? two years ago or recent?. > >> > > > Does you laptop have a repair partition or does it have a restore CD? > > If it has a repair partition and if you you mean by "wiped the restored to > factory condition" that you > removed this partition, you shot yourself in the foot. > > If in addition, you removed the restored to factory condition version of XP > from the OS partition, you have left yourself with few options. > > You can try to get the vendor to send you a CD which will restore the > computer to factory condition. > At least this option will save you time because you will not need to install > the drivers for the custom hardware > that is now found on most laptops. You will still need to install all > programs that you have added since you > bought the computer. > > You can also buy an XP CD and install XP on your computer. However, you > will still be left with the problem of > finding the drivers for the custom hardware. And you will need to install > all programs that you need. > > You may find it less costly and certainly less time consuming to replace the > computer. > > Jim > > >
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