Won't boot in safe mode or any mode.

[jumpsuit]

Aloha

I've got a bit of a strange problem. On rebooting my desktop the usual Sony and Pentium graphics came up and thats it - black screen and no startup.
Tried safe mode - same result nothing happens.

There's no hard drive activity after selecting xp pro in any mode LOL

Any ideas?

[Blencogo]

Hi Jumpy,

Have you tried using the LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION FEATURE ?

[jumpsuit]

Hi! Sorry - I forgot to mention I've tried that with no luck.

[Blencogo]

Oh Dear (or words to that effect)! I take it you don't have an XP disc or any other bootable disc.

As a long shot, you could try and make a bootable disc from your laptop.

To make one, insert a CD into drive F. Type the following commands, pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini F: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com F: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr F: /h

Now type exit and press Enter to close the window. Put the CD in the drive of your inoperable machine and boot up. Windows should run with no problems. You could simply keep the floppy in the drive all the time, but to truly fix the problem, launch the command prompt as described above, type xcopy F:*.* c:\ /h, and press Enter.

Can't guarantee it but it may prevent a reinstall!!!

Desperate Measures Required!!!!

:smileyd_oh:

[jumpsuit]

Thanks alot for that Blencogo!
unfortunately I keep getting 'invalid' messages despite altering the correct drive letter.
Still trying though!

[Blencogo]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

Are you getting the 'Invalid' message on the Laptop or the Desktop?

I suppose it will only work if your HDD boot sector is corrupt or if boot.ini is corrupt. It does sound like this could be the problem though.

I wonder if there is a way of opening the Recovery Console without a XP disc? I'll have a browse on the MS website - I seem to remember there was a way of downloading the Recovery Console as part of a program to make the CD drive bootable on a computer with the floppy disc drive set as the default.



EDIT: Are both using the same Version of Windows (Home or Pro)?

[Thalamus.]

Here is a link Blencogo/Jumpy for the Windows XP Setup boot disks.

This link may help also..:smileyhappy:

[Blencogo]

Good Sleuthing Thalamus

I remembered vaguely about the one using floppy discs - but that requires a bootable floppy drive.

The ability to make a bootable CD looks a great answer. I may give it a go - you never know when it may be useful!!

[jumpsuit]

Thanks alot Blencogo and Thal!
Both pc's are using different versions of XP (Wouldn't you just know it LOL) and therein probably lies the problem.

The boot disks look interesting, and I'm currently exploring another couple of avenues:smileygrin:

Thanks again!

[Blencogo]

Ah................ - you will have to edit the boot.ini as it is operating system specific.

You will have to change "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" to "Microsoft Windows XP Professional"

Your boot.ini for XP Pro should look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect



EDIT: You don't have a dual boot on either do you?