Help me ....computer dying..

[johnegg12]

I dont know whats going on.
Ok I have a crap pc which originally had win 98 installed. I upgraded to windows xp which installed on the d: drive (98 was on the c: drive). Because i no longer wanted win 98 to take up any more room I deleted all the system files from c: drive.
However when booting , the pc was still asking me which system i wished to boot, 98 or xp!

I deleted all the rest of the system files I could find on c: to solve this (foolishly) and now Im getting an error telling me the boot file is not found, please restart.

How can I get the pc to boot from the d: drive where xp is installed or did I delete an important xp file from the c: drive?

I cant boot from cd rom or floppy either (I think the pc still thinks 98 is installed and wont boot from xp boot floppy).

 

[ShoobieRat]

There's a file called "boot.ini" which contains instructions for the computer about the OS(s) installed. You have to modify that.

Second, your computer's a bit more sophysticated than that. You can't just delete the files you see and make an OS disappear. (You can make it fail, but you can't remove it that way.)

 

[johnegg12]

Cheers. how do i modify that file if i cant get in?

 

[ShoobieRat]

When you're asked which OS to choose, choose the newer installation (your XP installation). Once that fires up, you should be able to search your drives for "boot.ini"

Just open it with notepad and make the changes.

 

[TheMajor]

Maybe you deleted your boot.ini. Maybe XP put the boot.ini on the C: drive because it was the active partition. That's what happend to me a few weeks ago. I would use the XP disc to do a repair. Also make sure the XP partition is active.

 

[intercodes]

I deleted all the rest of the system files I could find on c: to solve this (foolishly) and now Im getting an error telling me the boot file is not found, please restart.

johnegg12,

Iam afraid you deleted the "boot.ini" file too. Boot.ini file, in your case must be stored in C drive ,and because you deleted all the files in C drive, your boot file is lost and you cant boot anymore.

Hmm..maybe you can go into DOS and create a boot file and place it in C drive with the boot.ini name. I dunno the contents of the boot file or whether this procedure works. Maybe someone here helps better with creating boot file or fixing with some boot disk.

 

[TheMajor]

good idea, though you probably need the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files too. Maybe you can get them somewhere else..lol

The boo.ini file resides on the active partition, not neccesarely "C:"

Here, if you want to create your own boot.ini>

Try this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

or 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

 

[johnegg12]

Yes its the NTLDR file thats delted cos it says "NTLDR file not found hit ctl alt dlt to reboot" when i try to start it.What to do??

 

[intercodes]

johnegg12,

okay.
Run 'fixmbr' from the recovery console[windows xp disc] .IF that doesnt work create a boot.ini with the specifications as given by the "major'" from DOS [ by using win xp cd ] and save it in c drive.

else, try this

1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy ntdetect.com c:\

7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

 

[johnegg12]

Thanks for all the responses and help.Unfortunately i cant boot from cd either it just goes straight to that error. When i put in my old win 98 boot floppy it goes to dos but none of the commands work.