can't boot win xp after booting freedos

[aaach]

I booted from freedos and used kernel.sys or sys(don't remember

which) on c:, like this sys(or kernel.sys) c:.

 

T first I remember I used it without any parameters, hoping to see

help of some sort or description, but also /? didn't work I used it

on c:.

 

Now when i boot up I get fredos root_

 

Please help.

[danzil]

can you get safe mode....try booting from the cd and going into recovery console...

you may have a corrupt boot.ini. or mbr.

we can try a repair of these,if that fails a repair install of xp may be the best option.

let me know if you need any more help...

i have limited knowledge with free dos and linux alike but hey i will try.

kind regards

danzil

[aaach]

I now tried booting from the system recovery cd and I get the message - can't find ntldr.

I don't even know where the problem is, moreover I can't even boot from the cd.

I still get that freedos root_.

Thanks for help.

If possible, offer the most productive and non invasive solutions(no reinstallations).

[Guest Wolfeymole]

What are you trying to do here aaach?

 

Get XP to boot by using that freedos thing?

 

Forget it mate and get a proper copy of an XP cd as XP is an NT based system not dos.

 

It sounds to me like you have totally trashed the NT file system ie NT Loader not found.

[aaach]

No, I can't boot because I tried using it.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Did you set the bios to boot from the cdrom after inserting the XP disk?

[aaach]

I used xp cd, but it doesn't boot.

[aaach]

Yes I changed the boot up order.

But the cd doesn't boot.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

If you set the first boot option in the bios to boot from cdrom and it won't then either the cdrom is not present in the bios or the cd drive is shot or the XP disk is scratched.

Or the disk is a recovery disk only, ie it replaces system files but has no boot files.

[aaach]

It recognises the cd and I suppose the disk is bootable, still it cannot boot - instead I get the message(for the cd) - can't find ntldr.

At that point above it's displayed that cd is master disk.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

It can't find the NT loader (boot file) on the disk that is why it is not installing.

What does it say exactly on that XP disk you have?

What is the jumper set to on that cdrom?

It should be set to slave with your hard drive as Primary Master on IDE 0

[aaach]

It says "system recovery".

The cdrom is set properly, I haven't had any boot up problems with it before.

I can't test to see if the problem with booting up from the cdrom lies with the cd or the files or settings, because right now I don't have other boot cds.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Like I said aaach if this is a recovery disk which apparently it now turns out to be then you will have to have XP in place on the hard drive originally.

Seeing "NTLDR not found" means that the file system is shot and without a proper working version of XP to reinstall the boot files your not going anywhere.

 

Here's a test ok

 

Set the hard drive as Primary Master on IDE 0 or 1

Set the cdrom as Primary Slave via the jumper/s on the middle connector on the IDE cable.

Set the bios to boot from the xp disk, ie cdrom.

 

Get back to us with what happens.

[aaach]

I tried that and nothing changed. For the cd it still says no emulation and ntldr not found.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

I don't think your saving the settings when exiting the bios because if you had the hdd and cdrom set in the manner I say then the only message you should be getting would be "Press any key to boot from cd"

 

I say this because it sounds to me like it is still trying to boot from the hdd, ie NTLDR not found.

 

What is this emulation thing you talk off?

[aaach]

First it as before, displays the message for the cd - no emulation and ntldr not found and below it, freedos root_.

That's all I get when I don't put in the cd.

No emulation was there before, for the cd, just didn't mention it.

I still don't know what happened to the pc when I used that command on the freedos disk.

[Seth]

Do you have more than one cd drive? If so try to boot from that one.

 

Does the cd show up in the bios system information along with the hard drive?

 

Watch the cd drive light as you try to boot from it. Is it flashing? Can you hear the cd spinning?

[aaach]

Yes the cdrom definitely works.

[Seth]

So you can hear the cd spinning and it's attempting to boot from it, but fails?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Do you have a floppy disk drive in this PC aach?

If so we may have another work around on this.

[aaach]

Yes, I certainly have a floppy drive in the pc.

I can't say why it doesn't boot from the cd, although I hadn't any problems with the disk drive before, so it's a software problem - either with the pc, or the cd isn't bootable.

[Seth]

To confirm that the cd can boot from a bootable cd, download and burn this image of the Recovery Console:

 

Not only will it confirm boot ability, but the repairs you need to do can be run from the Recovery Console.

[aaach]

I tried the rc.iso, it worked,

but I didn't run any commands to prevent inflicting further damage.

[Seth]

That's good news.

 

From the Recovery Console just hit enter if your asked for a password. Then type the command fixboot and hit enter. Following that, type exit and see if Window's is ok. If not, go back into the Recovery Console and type in fixmbr followed by fixboot.

 

That should do it, if not, post back and we can try one other more aggressive RC command.

[aaach]

I don't know if that wouldn't damage something else.

If you are sure, I'll try it.