What else to do? (Win XP no boot to OS)

Method9

Method9

Member
This is a coworker's PC. It's an older Sony Vaio desktop. Single Core P4 w/hyperthreading. Basically, it displays the boot screen then goes to a blank, black screen with a blinking _ . Of course he never made a system recovery disc.

Hitting F8 lets me into BIOS without a hitch. I tried starting at last known good configuration and booting into safe mode--neither worked.

I've tried running Spinrite and it found no issues. I booted to recovery console with an XP install CD and ran chkdsk /r. It found and fixed errors. Now it boots to a black screen, this time with no _ .

I tried fixmbr, but chickened out when I got one of these messages:
"This computer appears to have a non-standard
or invalid master boot record.
FIXMBR may damage your partitiontables if you proceed.
This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk
to become inaccesible.
If you are not having problems accessing your drive to not continue.
Are you sure you want to write a new MBR? "


I really want to get this PC running without formatting. If he takes it to supergeeks, I must admit defeat! I'm wondering what else a place like Supergeeks might do. Should I try downloading BartPE and go that direction? Never used it before, but I'm willing to learn.
 
Bart PE you could try. You'll need a full version XP disk, though. But you could also try to repair the installation with Windows setup off the XP CD by going through the steps a little ways. Usually works, and it shouldn't mess up your installation. You'll have to activate Windows at the end, but all the setting and programs will be there and it will be just like before, just without the issue.
 
Have you tried hiren's boot CD?

Hi, You should try hiren's boot CD. It has a mini xp on it and it runs as stand alone. You can then create backup of all your documents and then reinstall xp, if need be.
 
Do try the Hiren cd. When you start the computer from it, check if you can first backup the files from local disk. Put them on an external something or another. Then before you exit the Hiren's, look at the programs it offers and you'll see MBR options. See if you can do MBR Wizard or one of the others. What it'll do is reset your MBR. Since you've backed up all your files you needed, it probably won't hurt to try this step before attempting to re-install the XP. BUT keep in mind that whatever you do there is always the chance that this whole mess happened because of a virus. So even if you manage to fix your MBR it might be better to clean install everything. And if, indeed, a virus caused all that mess, you should be extra careful with your backed up files, as they might be now carrying that same virus. Step one: find out what the user was doing on the computer when it all started. It'll give you idea what might be the possible cause for the problem. Hope it helps. BTW, if you want to just access your files and back them up, you may also try downloading UBUNTU and run it the same way. When it starts it'll ask you if you want to run it or install. RUN IT. Then you'll see your local disk in the Filesystem and you can back up from there. Good luck.
 
Well, I have an extra USB external drive to use with enough room to fit all of my coworkers data, but I won't. I'm too worried that his is virus infected and it might infect all of my backups. I think I will go ahead and proceed with fixmbr. If it doesn't work, what harm is done? Not like it works right now.

I'll give him the option to go out and buy an external drive, with which I'll use to back up his data. If he doesn't want to spend the money, I'll hand the computer back. I bet Supergeeks will simply charge for data recovery and reinstall the OS.

As for using Hiren CD, probably I'd just use a Linux Live CD to transfer all important files from his hard drive to an external drive--if he goes that route.
 
Well, he is gonna need an external hard drive to back up from now on at least anyway (hopefully), if he ever learned anything from this experience, so you might wanna put it this way to him. And then, as you said, go ahead with fixmbr, I was suggesting Hiren's because it would give you the option to back up, fix MBR and, since you were asking about Bart, I thought here is an alternative. Even if you don't go with Hiren's now, you may find it usefull in the future. If you can get your hands on UBCD4WIN, even better. Research these options, they are only gonna help you.
 
I tried fixmbr. It worked! Well, sort of. I used the XP disc to boot to the recovery console command prompt. This Vaio PC is kinda funny. I had a choice between C:\ and H:\. H:\, or whatever it was seemed to be where Windows resides. I suspect C:\ is Sony's special partition. I ran fixmbr on C:\ and rebooted with no disc in the drive.

It immediately booted to a Vaio recovery console, where I got to choose to do a Vaio system wipe or do nothing. I did nothing. XP booted to the login screen. I didn't think to ask my coworker for his password so I elected to do a restart to see if it would on its own.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't shut down and hung up on the shutting down screen--I had to pull the plug.

Now it hangs up on the Vaio screen in POST, before I am given the opportunity to F8 to CMOS setup utility or before it even attempts to read from the optical drive. Shoots! I'm going to try to pull the CMOS battery and reseat it. Hopefully then I can run a chkdsk /r or perhaps another fixmbr and all will be well.


EDIT: Oh lulobat, I do appreciate your Hiren's suggestion. It looks as if I may not need it but it is something I want to know about for future problems.
 
Pulling the CMOS battery worked like a charm. It works 100% now, no need for any more fixmbr or chkdsk.

Putting it all into perspective, what I learned from customer #1:

-Go for the easy stuff first. I ran 2 different hard drive recovery routines, thinking some OS files were on bad sectors. It took 2 days to do all this.
-chkdsk does not fix anything unless you type chkdsk /r :dumb:
-Single core P4s take longer to shut down from a Windows XP login screen than my zippy workstation. Give it a few minutes and then I won't have to open the case to pull the CMOS battery in the future.
 
You have said several time that this is a co-workers computer. Question I have, is your co-worker the OWNER of the computer. Does he actually own the computer, or is it actually, legal property of someone else or property of a corporation, government, school, etc...?
 
gamblingman said:
You have said several time that this is a co-workers computer. Question I have, is your co-worker the OWNER of the computer. Does he actually own the computer, or is it actually, legal property of someone else or property of a corporation, government, school, etc...?
Click to expand...

Yes. This was a coworker's personal computer. He owns it. It has nothing to do with any corporate network. It has never been connected to any corporate network.
 
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