Noob Win XP Pro problem

E

edro20

New Member
Can't boot from HD or CD citing a missing config\system file. Can't get to safe mode to make repairs. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
Go into BIOS and set your CD-ROM as the first boot device. Pop in the XP CD and reboot.
 
Right at boot up press F1, F2 or the Delete key. Those are keys that will commonly get you into your Basic Input Output System (BIOS).
 
if you can boot into the xp disk, say repair, it should give you a dos-like window. type "fix mbr" without quotes, after that's done, type "fix boot" without quotes. if you still can't get the pc to boot to cd, try disconnecting the hdd's, leaving only the cd drives connected.
 
Thanks! I have already tried changing the BIOS to boot from CD and it does spin up the CD, but I get an error stating the following:

"Line 18854 of the INF file \i386\txtsetip.sif is invalid
Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit."

then it stops the boot. I can't get it to boot from either the hdd or the cd.

I have heard that you can make a boot disc (for Win XP Pro) and get going, but I don't know how to do this.

I think that the registry is corrupted (maybe). Any other ideas? The computer will POST fine, but nothing after that. I don't think that I have a virus as I ran antivirus recently. Hardware seems to be ok.

Oh yeah, I dont' get a command prompt at any time.
 
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I have wanted, for a while, to build another computer and so I was wondering if I can't resolve this issue with this computer...Can I take the hdd and put in in a new build and scavenge my data (i.e., music, photos, etc.)? I am talking about setting it as slave to the new hdd on the new machine. Can I still access the data if the old hdd is slapped into a new build as secondary??

Any clues as to making a boot disc??

Thanks!!
 
edro20 said:
I have wanted, for a while, to build another computer and so I was wondering if I can't resolve this issue with this computer...Can I take the hdd and put in in a new build and scavenge my data (i.e., music, photos, etc.)? I am talking about setting it as slave to the new hdd on the new machine. Can I still access the data if the old hdd is slapped into a new build as secondary??

Any clues as to making a boot disc??

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

If it's IDE then you just set it as a slave. If it's SATA you should be able to just pop it in and read it. It won't boot, but you can read it in another install.

As for boot disk, what kind do you mean?

And if your interested in getting your info and just wiping the drive, get a live CD of linux (like SLAX) and boot to that and save all your data onto an external HDD.
 
voyagerfan99 said:
If it's IDE then you just set it as a slave. If it's SATA you should be able to just pop it in and read it. It won't boot, but you can read it in another install.

As for boot disk, what kind do you mean?

And if your interested in getting your info and just wiping the drive, get a live CD of linux (like SLAX) and boot to that and save all your data onto an external HDD.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I had heard that you could create a start disc like the old MSDOS ones. Don't know if you can or not:confused:

I appreciate all the help. :D You guys rock!
 
edro20 said:
Thanks, I had heard that you could create a start disc like the old MSDOS ones. Don't know if you can or not:confused:

I appreciate all the help. :D You guys rock!
Click to expand...

i know you can d/l a 'windows live' torrent that is bootable from various sources (cd, usb drive, etc). i dont know if you can use it though, since you cant boot from cd, and i dont know if xp will boot from usb. maybe someone else could fill in the gaps here... im not real familiar with bootables.

i dont know how legal it is (or isnt) to download one of them, and i dont wanna get you, myself, or this forum in any trouble. but you can find various versions here... d/l at your own risk though.

EDIT: fixed link
 
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