XP BOOT PROBLEM

"BOB" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:<00dc01c3cfbe$66993b80$a101280a@phx.gbl>...

> My computer has developped a problem during boot-up. It
> has a stop error that states "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME" I
> followed the instructions under the published article
> Q297185. This had me install the XP CD and try to run
> the repair service. When trying to load the repair
> service, I encountered another stop error. This
> was "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT". I'm about at the point where I
> am going to format the hard drive and start over. Any
> suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Does your machine happen to have PCCillin2000 installed? I've ran
across 2 seperate machines today (both have the same version of
PCCillin 2000 installed) where this suddenly started happening (about
6 hours apart).

The solution was to boot into safe mode, rename the C:/Program
Files/Trend folder to C:/program files/old.trend and reboot. I was
then able to start in normal mode and uninstall pccillin and
everything has worked fine since.
(Trend tried to reinstall itself in both instances, and then tought it
was running in expired 30 day trial mode... but uninstalling on that
first reboot solved *that* problem... )

Brian

Good afternoon,

I recently built a new computer for myself and I took the hard drive from my
old computer which has Win2K installed on it. I booted up in Win2K and from
there installed a fresh copy of WinXP Pro on my brand new hard drive. In my
BIOS setting I still had the hard drive with Win2K on it as the boot device
and when boots up, I have option of running Win2K or WinXP Pro. The Win2K is
installed on the C: drive and the WinXP Pro is installed on the E: drive.
The problem is that I changed my boot device to the new hard drive with
WinXP Pro on it and the machine reports the generic message that there is no
boot device. I found out the "boot.ini", "NTDETECT.COM", and "ntldr" files
were missing from my Windows directory on the WinXP Pro hard drive. I copied
these over and this is what the boot.ini file looks like:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microso ft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect

So, in short I cannot boot WinXP solely from the hard drive it is installed
on, the hard drive on which Win2K is installed must be the boot device, and
from there I can boot WinXP Pro. How do I resolve this issue so that I can
boot cleanly off of the WinXP Pro hard drive?

Thank you,
Charles

The problem stems from the fact that you set up a dual boot.By having Win2k on C
and installing XP onto E XP took over the MBR on the C drive.
In that section it tells your computer how to boot......you moved the C drive to
slave and your computer has no MBR to read.
You need to do a repair installation of XP in order to be able to boot of that
drive......you will of course lose(heck you've already lost it by moving the
drives around)the dual boot.
XP REPAIR
.................................................. ...........................

Boot from the CD or you can insert the CD while at the windows desktop but
when the setup screen appears, exit setup and reboot. If your system is set
to be able to boot from the CD, it should detect the disk and give a brief
message, during the boot up, if you wish to boot from the CD press any key.

Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a reference
asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.

Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a screen
with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
using the Recovery console.

The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you to
press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement. Setup
will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
on, follow the screens.

The Recovery Console might work as well
Try booting up using the XP CD-ROM and choose to repair. Then choose the
Recovery Console Option...
Choose the number corresponding to your XP version and enter your
Administrator Password (then press enter).

After that you'll see a command prompt...enter the following command:

bootcfg /rebuild" command to fix boot.ini.
FIXBOOT will fix the boot sector on the boot drive,
FIXMBR will fix the master boot record if the NT loader
complains of a missing HAL or unmountable boot volume.


After the process is completed enter the command EXIT to quit (and the
system should auto reboot OK from that point onwards...

I would try the recovery console first.....nothing to lose and it takes less
time.
peter
"Charles" <Charles@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FE161C38-5CD8-40A3-B5EB-C9AAD3EBBFFC@microsoft.com...

> Good afternoon,
>
> I recently built a new computer for myself and I took the hard drive from my
> old computer which has Win2K installed on it. I booted up in Win2K and from
> there installed a fresh copy of WinXP Pro on my brand new hard drive. In my
> BIOS setting I still had the hard drive with Win2K on it as the boot device
> and when boots up, I have option of running Win2K or WinXP Pro. The Win2K is
> installed on the C: drive and the WinXP Pro is installed on the E: drive.
> The problem is that I changed my boot device to the new hard drive with
> WinXP Pro on it and the machine reports the generic message that there is no
> boot device. I found out the "boot.ini", "NTDETECT.COM", and "ntldr" files
> were missing from my Windows directory on the WinXP Pro hard drive. I copied
> these over and this is what the boot.ini file looks like:
>
> [boot loader]
> timeout=0
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOW S
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microso ft Windows 2000
> Professional" /fastdetect
>
> So, in short I cannot boot WinXP solely from the hard drive it is installed
> on, the hard drive on which Win2K is installed must be the boot device, and
> from there I can boot WinXP Pro. How do I resolve this issue so that I can
> boot cleanly off of the WinXP Pro hard drive?
>
> Thank you,
> Charles
>
>

Charles wrote:

> Good afternoon,
>
> I recently built a new computer for myself and I took the hard drive
> from my old computer which has Win2K installed on it. I booted up in
> Win2K and from there installed a fresh copy of WinXP Pro on my brand
> new hard drive. In my BIOS setting I still had the hard drive with
> Win2K on it as the boot device and when boots up, I have option of
> running Win2K or WinXP Pro. The Win2K is installed on the C: drive
> and the WinXP Pro is installed on the E: drive. The problem is that I
> changed my boot device to the new hard drive with WinXP Pro on it and
> the machine reports the generic message that there is no boot device.
> I found out the "boot.ini", "NTDETECT.COM", and "ntldr" files were
> missing from my Windows directory on the WinXP Pro hard drive. I
> copied these over and this is what the boot.ini file looks like:
>
> [boot loader]
> timeout=0
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOW S
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
> Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microso ft Windows 2000
> Professional" /fastdetect
>
> So, in short I cannot boot WinXP solely from the hard drive it is
> installed on, the hard drive on which Win2K is installed must be the
> boot device, and from there I can boot WinXP Pro. How do I resolve
> this issue so that I can boot cleanly off of the WinXP Pro hard drive?
>
> Thank you,
> Charles

You really messed up. When you moved the hard drives, the boot files were on
the C drive. Even if you get XP to boot, your registry settings will all be
pointing to the original location.
Try returning the system back to the original configuration. You can run
fixmbr, fixboot and bootcfg from the recovery console and hopefully get it
working again.
To change XP to the C drive, you should backup and clean install XP on the C
drive.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
xpnews@bogusmichaelstevenstech.com
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outloo...snewreader.htm

I’m running Windows XP Pro on a laptop with Service Pack 3 and all
updates current. (the laptop is a Dell Inspiron, the XP Pro plus
various diagnostic tests on CD came from Dell with the original
purchase).

This machine has served me well for quite some time, and all I have
done in changes is to upgrade its hard drive every year or so, from
an original 60GB to presently 250GB.

THE PROBLEM:
=============
The laptop usually works fine for some number of days. At days end, I
shut it down regularly (Start Button - > Turn Off Computer), next
morning it boots up regularly.

Then, randomly (every couple of days), the laptop will NOT BOOT up.
When I switch it on, after the Power Up Self Test (POST), the cursor
will just sit blinking in the upper left corner of an otherwise black
screen. Nothing happens.

This always happens after I shut down and then, some time later,
switch back on. In other words, there never are crashes while I work,
no blue screens, all is fine until some future shut down / boot up.

I have searched extensively on the Web, and many postings exist about
the problem of Windows not booting, with a “blinking cursor” sitting
in the “upper left corner”, but no one has offerd any real explanation
or solution (other than re-installing).

Since I have been make regular identical clones of my working hard
drive, I always have a couple of bootable hard drives with all my
programs and work in reserve, so I haven’t lost anything serious yet,
other than an inordinate amount of wasted time.

SOME OTHER SYMPTOMS:
======================
When the “blinking cursor” problem happens, I switch the laptop power
off, then unmount the hard disk and put it into an external case with
USB connector.

When I look at the drive on some other machine, it looks just fine. I
see all files and I cannot detect any problem with any file or with
the disk in general (chkdsk and various other diagnostic tests) -- it
seems to be perfectly alright.

I have run extensive diagnostic tests both on the drive and on the
laptop (many provided on a CD by the manufacturer of the laptop).
Everything always checks out fine.

So, the laptop checks out perfectly fine, various hard disk I have
used check out fine, and all files on the disks always check out
perfectly fine,

But the damn disks fail to boot.

I will greatly appreciate any ideas, clues, explanations, solutions….

Thanks,

Wolfgang,
CA

You might want to check www.memtest.org and also the disk checking utility
provided by your HD manufacturer.
That said, it could be simply a bad/dry connection within your laptop
It depends how comfortable you are with opening your laptop & reseating all
the connections

<rnott@lternet.edu> wrote in message
news:9bfe7fbe-eacf-4472-b714-2c66c2a1da73@i20g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
I’m running Windows XP Pro on a laptop with Service Pack 3 and all
updates current. (the laptop is a Dell Inspiron, the XP Pro plus
various diagnostic tests on CD came from Dell with the original
purchase).

This machine has served me well for quite some time, and all I have
done in changes is to upgrade its hard drive every year or so, from
an original 60GB to presently 250GB.

THE PROBLEM:
=============
The laptop usually works fine for some number of days. At days end, I
shut it down regularly (Start Button - > Turn Off Computer), next
morning it boots up regularly.

Then, randomly (every couple of days), the laptop will NOT BOOT up.
When I switch it on, after the Power Up Self Test (POST), the cursor
will just sit blinking in the upper left corner of an otherwise black
screen. Nothing happens.

This always happens after I shut down and then, some time later,
switch back on. In other words, there never are crashes while I work,
no blue screens, all is fine until some future shut down / boot up.

I have searched extensively on the Web, and many postings exist about
the problem of Windows not booting, with a “blinking cursor” sitting
in the “upper left corner”, but no one has offerd any real explanation
or solution (other than re-installing).

Since I have been make regular identical clones of my working hard
drive, I always have a couple of bootable hard drives with all my
programs and work in reserve, so I haven’t lost anything serious yet,
other than an inordinate amount of wasted time.

SOME OTHER SYMPTOMS:
======================
When the “blinking cursor” problem happens, I switch the laptop power
off, then unmount the hard disk and put it into an external case with
USB connector.

When I look at the drive on some other machine, it looks just fine. I
see all files and I cannot detect any problem with any file or with
the disk in general (chkdsk and various other diagnostic tests) -- it
seems to be perfectly alright.

I have run extensive diagnostic tests both on the drive and on the
laptop (many provided on a CD by the manufacturer of the laptop).
Everything always checks out fine.

So, the laptop checks out perfectly fine, various hard disk I have
used check out fine, and all files on the disks always check out
perfectly fine,

But the damn disks fail to boot.

I will greatly appreciate any ideas, clues, explanations, solutions….

Thanks,

Wolfgang,
CA