Lost my Heard Drives After messing with boot.ini

[MadHacker]

Okay, here's the scenario. I have two hard drives, an 8Gig and a 12GIG. I installed Windows XP on my 8 GIG, which is the C: drive. And I completely reformatted the D: drive.

When I started the computer it should me options for loading Windows XP, Windows 2000 advanced server or previous operating system on C:. This was the OLD setup, before I wiped everything out

Okay so I went in and cut out the last few lines in boot.ini, figuring that would fix the problem. Only now, when it get's to the point where it should boot up, it tells me that <Windows Path>/Firel/XXXX/XXX.dll was not found (<Windows Path> is written just like that!). And it halts. I try to go into safe mode, and still get the same error.

Okay, well I have my DOS 6.22 System Disk, so I boot up of my disk, figuring i can replace the boot.ini with a backup (Of course i have a backup, you think I'm stupid?)... but now I cannot access eithor the C: or the D: drive. I tried using an XP boot disk (made from my OTHER computer, which also has XP) and booting off of that with the same results (except I don't even have my CD drivers with the XP boot disk).

Can anyone tell me how I can get back to my C: drive to fix this?

TIA

 

[wolluf]

Use XP's recovery console. Boot from XP install CD, and choose repair using recovery console when prompted. You'll need administrator password - which will get you to something like a command prompt. Type help for list of commands - you can copy from a floppy. This all assumes you haven't wiped out everything on hard drives of course!

 

[TheOldMan346]

Sounds like you inadvertantly screwed up your BOOT.INI file.

Did you back the file up before editing it? Does your editor save a backup copy? If so, rename the backup and try to boot. If it is OK, you can re-edit the BOOT.INI being careful not to remove necessary elements.

The Old Man

 

[TheOldMan346]

Here's some additional information on the BOOT.INI file.

http://windows2000.about.com/library/weekly/aa032099.htm

Hope that helps.
The Old Man

 

[MadHacker]

wolluf,

Thanks, but I cannot boot from the XP CD. Unfortunately I can't find the original, and the backup CD I used to install the XP is not bootable, it would appear. The main thing I really need to do, is just get to the C: drive. If I could just get to it, I can fix this mess. I can get to the CD-ROM drive, but it doesn't help anything. There's nothing I can run from the disk, apparantly that will get me back into the setup (so maybe I could a repair?) or anything

 

[MadHacker]

TheOldMan346,

Thank you for your reply, and yes I definitly messed up the boot.ini file. I do have a backup, but I can't even see the C: drive to put it there.

 

[TheOldMan346]

Is your file system NTFS or FAT/FAT32?

If it is a FAT variety, do you have a Win9X boot disk. You can boot from that and edit/copy/rename the BOOT.INI file.

The Old Man

 

[MadHacker]

TheOldMan346,

Unfortunately, it is NTFS. I should no better! I always format my system with FAT32, why on earth did I format it with NTFS? Grrrrrrrrr...

 

[TheOldMan346]

Do you have a Win9X boot or even a DOS boot disk? If so, go here

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/NTFSDOS.shtml

and download the appropriate utility. It will allow you to access the NTFS file syste, Then you should be able to rename your backup BOOT.INI file and then reboot from the hard drive.

Good luck.
The Old Man

 

[TheOldMan346]

Sorry, I just realized the ffree version is read-only. You need the Pro version to be able to write to NTFS.

Arrgghhh!
The Old Man

 

[TheOldMan346]

Try the suggestions at the following link to create a quick boot disk

http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy/xxcopy33.htm

This should allow you to boot into NT from the diskette which then means you will be able to access the NTFS volume. Rename your backup and try to boot again.

The Old Man

 

[MadHacker]

TheOldMan346,

Thanks! I think I actually have NTFSDOS Pro in my vast library of programs I never used If I do, this will probably work. I had forgotten about the program, seeing as I have never had the need to use it...

 

[TheOldMan346]

Excellent!

It never hurts to have some of these utilities in your arsenal.

Good luck.
The Old Man

 

[MadHacker]

Crud, I tried to run NTFS DOS pro, and it can't write the files neccesary to the disk, it seems the NTSOKRNL file is a bit larger in XP then 2000, and this appears to be for 2K... well let me try that other link... sigh

 

[wolluf]

What's wrong with recovery console?

 

[MadHacker]

WOLLUF,

I can't get to the recovery console, because I cannot boot from the CD... Also that quick boot disk didn't work (the previous link from TheOldMan346)... Is there some program I can run from the CD to allow it to go into the repair console?

 

[MadHacker]

The message I am getting when I try to boot is:



Windows cannot start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file.



I would love to reinstall a copy of whatever file it wants me to, if it would only let me see the freaking Hard Drive.

 

[TheOldMan346]

Dumb question, I know, but I have to ask. Are you sure the XP install completed correctly? Something is beginning to sound funky!

If the CD you used is not bootable, how did you do the install? It should be bootable. Perhaps the CD is corrupt and the install was flawed. Not sure from rereading your first post if you were able to do a good boot after the install was finalized.

The Old Man

 

[MadHacker]

TheOldMan346,

I installed from a backup CD, which is not bootable. I installed from Windows 2000, repartitioned the C: drive and installed the WIndow XP on that drive. The installation was perfect, everything was working, it rebooted fine several times. The only thing I changed was the boot.ini file, as far as I am aware of. I also reformatted the C: drive to NTFS for some reason I really cannot fathom today...

Anyway, thanks for all your help... I am still at a total loss...

 

[linney]

Something a bit different to try if your stuck. You could convert your backup CD to a boot CD and then either boot and reformat or play with the Recovery Console.

You will need a CD Writer and third party CD burning software or access to a machine with it, (XP's self contained burning software wont create a bootable CD).

The instructions and software for creating a bootable XP Pro CD can be found here. The software is freeware and a small download of about 640kb in a zip file.

http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#wxp