can't boot win xp after booting freedos

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Rest assured aaach, Seth would not advise you if he was not sure.

[AdvancedSetup]

Hello aaach,

 

FIXBOOT is simply attempting to repair the hard drive to a point where it can boot up again. If there are other issues with the OS it will not change that and those errors will need to be addressed on their own.

 

It will not damage any current data you have on the hard drive.

[aaach]

I used fixboot, but before I did, I booted from a cd that had a disk editor on it and when I selected partition view, I saw that in its first sector(63), was that message I have been recieving - freedos root_. Now when I used fixboot, I get another message - disk error, press any key to restart. So I used the disk editor again and found this message in the same place.

[Seth]

Try Fixmbr.

 

(Fix Master Boot Record).

[aaach]

But how would it help - if the mbr is the first sector on my hard drive, it seems fine.

Fixboot doesn't just copy mbr, it took the boot sector from somewhere else.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Like I have said before I am of the firm belief that any variation of an NT based os was not on your hard drive at any time.

 

I ask this, where did it take the boot sector from?

[Seth]

The only ways I know how to fix such a problem are fixboot, fixmbr, bootcfg /rebuild, or a repair install of XP.

 

For the bootcfg /rebuild (from this article):

 

http://www.informationweek.com/LP/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185301251&pgno=2&queryText=

 

At the command prompt, type "Bootcfg /Rebuild" (without the quotes) and hit enter. Windows will then scan the hard drive, looking for valid Windows installs and startup information.

 

The exact verbiage will depend on your setup, but after a few moments you'll see a prompt that says something like:

 

Total Identified Windows Installs: 1

[1] C:\Windows

Add Installation To Boot List?

 

Assuming the information you see is correct, enter "Y" for yes, and Bootcfg will start the process of rebuilding the boot list to include the indicated Windows installation. Along the way, it will repair most "Missing or corrupt HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," "Windows could not start...," and similar errors.

 

After a moment, you'll be asked to "Enter Load Identifier." This is the name of the operating system that will appear in boot menus. For consistency with the standard nomenclature used by Microsoft, enter "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" or "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" without the quotes and hit enter.

 

Next you'll be asked to "Enter OS Load Options." For normal installations, enter "/Fastdetect" (without the quotes) and hit enter.

 

In most cases, that's all it will take. You can type "Exit" to leave the Recovery Console and reboot the PC, which should then start normally.

 

But if you wish, or in cases where you suspect a problem with the boot sectors on the hard drive (as with problems in a dual- or multi-boot system that's become unstable, or where a third-party boot manager may have run amok), you can run Fixboot from the command line (without any parameters) prior to exiting the Recovery Console. This will write a new partition boot sector to the default drive, undoing any changes caused by dual-, multi-, or third-party boot processes. (You can reactivate those alternate boot methods later if you wish, but running Fixboot now simplifies the boot process and removes nonessential boot variables, which in turn helps ensure that the repaired XP installation will have the best chance of successful booting.)

 

After running Fixboot, type "Exit" to leave the Recovery Console and reboot the PC, which should then start normally.

[AdvancedSetup]

I tried the RC.ISO image file but it did not work for me.

 

I burned it to CD.

It started and loaded up for a while then I got a Blue Screen of Death.

[aaaach]

Solution

 

I have finally gotten to post the results, written quite a while ago.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

 

The problem now is resolved. In fact the solution had been explicitly suggested on this forum, it was to use the fixboot command, which fixed it completely. I couldn't be sure of anything and had to make sense of things myself, which took somewhat longer, but in the end I could be confident I wouldn't damage anything else by trying to fix the problem. I wrote down some of my resolving steps below.

 

Freedos sys command seems to have replaced boot sector of the primary partition with other code. Now, absolute sector 63 had the following code, as copied down manually from the output of PTS disk editor available on the UBCD, since I couldn't save it to a file (no such option in the program):

0000 EB4C9000000000000000000002080000

0010 0000000000F800003F00FF003F000000

0020 0000000080008000ED1EBF0100000000

0030 000004000000000047CB080000006000

0040 00003F0000003F0000003F000000FAFC

0050 31CO8ED08EDBBDOO7C8D66EOFBB8ED01

0060 B106D3ED2DEDO78ECO89EE89EFB90001

0070 F3A506BB787C53CB8ED88ED0885624E8

0080 DD004C6F6164696E672046726565444F

0090 532E2E2E0D0A524F4F54DO8B46468B56

00A0 488B7E4031DB8E463EE8CF00723831FF

00B0 B90B00BEC77D57F3A65F268B451A740B

00C0 B3C72026803D0075E7726FE891002046

00D0 415400508E463E31DB8B7E168B46428B

00E0 5644E896005872521E061F07BF0040AD

00F0 89C601F601C6D1EEAD7304B104D3E880

0100 E40F3DFF0F72E831COAB0E1FE8500020

0110 4B45524E454C008E463E31DBBE0040AD

0120 09C0742948488B7E0D81E7FF00F7E703

0130 464A13564CE8430073E5E8FF00F7E703

0140 4F4F54206572726F722100EBFEE80F00

0150 20474F210D0A008A5E24EA0000600089

0160 76035E50535731DBB40EAC3C007404CD

0170 10EBF75F5B58568B7603C3565250F776

0180 1889D131D2F7761A88D6D0CCDOCC86C4

0190 8A561828CAFEC109C188D0B801028A56

01A0 24CD13730830E4CD13585AEBCF035E0B

01B0 73078CC080C4108EC0585A05010083D2

01C0 004F75B8F85ECB4345524E454C202053

01D0 59530000000000000000000000000000

01E0 00000000000000000000000000000000

01F0 000000000000000000000000000055AA

PTS disk editor allowed me to see that the message I was getting, "freedos root", was located in that sector, which can be seen by converting the above hex (unspaced ** values, for example EB4C9000 in the beginning, would look like EB 4C 90 00 in a hex editor) into ASCII. If spaced and without the offset markings, it should look like this:

EB 4C 90 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 F8 00 00 3F 00 FF 00 3F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00 ED 1E BF 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 47 CB 08 00 00 00 60 00 00 00 3F 00 00 00 3F 00 00 00 3F 00 00 00 FA FC 31 CO 8E D0 8E DB BD OO 7C 8D 66 EO FB B8 ED 01 B1 06 D3 ED 2D ED O7 8E CO 89 EE 89 EF B9 00 01 F3 A5 06 BB 78 7C 53 CB 8E D8 8E D0 88 56 24 E8 DD 00 4C 6F 61 64 69 6E 67 20 46 72 65 65 44 4F 53 2E 2E 2E 0D 0A 52 4F 4F 54 DO 8B 46 46 8B 56 48 8B 7E 40 31 DB 8E 46 3E E8 CF 00 72 38 31 FF B9 0B 00 BE C7 7D 57 F3 A6 5F 26 8B 45 1A 74 0B B3 C7 20 26 80 3D 00 75 E7 72 6F E8 91 00 20 46 41 54 00 50 8E 46 3E 31 DB 8B 7E 16 8B 46 42 8B 56 44 E8 96 00 58 72 52 1E 06 1F 07 BF 00 40 AD 89 C6 01 F6 01 C6 D1 EE AD 73 04 B1 04 D3 E8 80 E4 0F 3D FF 0F 72 E8 31 CO AB 0E 1F E8 50 00 20 4B 45 52 4E 45 4C 00 8E 46 3E 31 DB BE 00 40 AD 09 C0 74 29 48 48 8B 7E 0D 81 E7 FF 00 F7 E7 03 46 4A 13 56 4C E8 43 00 73 E5 E8 FF 00 F7 E7 03 4F 4F 54 20 65 72 72 6F 72 21 00 EB FE E8 0F 00 20 47 4F 21 0D 0A 00 8A 5E 24 EA 00 00 60 00 89 76 03 5E 50 53 57 31 DB B4 0E AC 3C 00 74 04 CD 10 EB F7 5F 5B 58 56 8B 76 03 C3 56 52 50 F7 76 18 89 D1 31 D2 F7 76 1A 88 D6 D0 CC DO CC 86 C4 8A 56 18 28 CA FE C1 09 C1 88 D0 B8 01 02 8A 56 24 CD 13 73 08 30 E4 CD 13 58 5A EB CF 03 5E 0B 73 07 8C C0 80 C4 10 8E C0 58 5A 05 01 00 83 D2 00 4F 75 B8 F8 5E CB 43 45 52 4E 45 4C 20 20 53 59 53 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA

I didn't want to further damage the computer this had occurred on, which has Windows XP as its os, so I tried to replicate the error on a Windows 98 computer. I inserted the floppy and used the "sys c:" command and almost as soon as it started I ejected the floppy, because that was how I remembered I did it, fearing the command would do something unwanted. This generated the same error message I was getting on the Windows XP computer, as expected and so I was now doing further testing on the Windows 98 computer.

Booting into the the recovery console (rc.iso) I used some command, prior to writing this, so I can't be sure which one of those offered in the post, (maybe fixboot) and it seems that command did just what I would've liked it to: booting into UBCD and using PTS disk editor I could now see different code in the primary partition boot sector(63). However this did not solve the problem as now instead of the "freedos root" message when booting from the hard drive I was getting a "Disk error Press any key to restart" message. This message as well could be found in the boot sector (63) just as the previous. Pressing any key did not cause the computer to restart but instead it made some noise (I suppose the computer tried interpreting the boot sector code but couldn't do that properly and instead of restarting read the boot sector again) and displayed the same message again. Pressing the key again would keep doing the same thing. But it could be that freedos sys command did not yet do anything besides writing the boot sector code. Maybe and probably the code I replaced it with using some command from the recovery console, was meant for Windows XP and therefore would not work for Windows 98. To check that I would have to try and find something that would put Windows 98 boot sector code back. If that solved the problem I could then simply use recovery console to replace the boot sector on the Windows XP computer. I then found out where there is a copy of the boot sector code (Windows 98SE Boot Sector), and after verifying that only sector 63 was different from what was supposed to be there, I copied the backup sector (69) using PTS disk editor after booting with UBCD, and pasted it into sector 63. The computer could now boot.

Edited October 11, 2008 by aaaach

[Goku]

Thanks for the update Aach. It might come in useful for some other desperate soul. :)

 

-- Goku