busted!!

[derfist]

well, my dad has 2 OSz in his computer. 1 is Windows Me n the other XP. so he decided to unintall Me to save space as his XP was werkin fine. but after uninstallin Me, he got an error message saying that the boot.ini file is invalid n its loadin from c:\windows\. after that, it asks if he wants to start windows normal, safe mode, n blah blah blah (default F8 options). so he chose to start normally. then while its loadin, the BSOD comes for a split second n the computer restarts immediately. he has tried bootin from safe mode n all the other options available there, but same thing happens. so, do u guyz have any idea what is wrong? thanks 4 the help.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

You have managed to mess up the boot.ini file, which tells the OS how to boot.

Search up on how to replace the boot.ini file from the recovery console

 

[bigbmxdave]

chances are its going to be very hard to replace the boot.ini file with these problems . best option is to reinstall XP from scratch after erasing everything on the hard drive. This would also mean you sorted any other problems caused that you havnt found yet.

 

[bigbmxdave]

although this method will probably result in your dad losing all his work files it is the best way. If you dont want to lose his work files then there is a long way round which like DJ-CHRIS said involves fixing the boot.ini file

 

[bigbmxdave]

Im not sure, but my first attempt at fixing the boot.ini file would be to go to a mates house who is running XP and copy his boot.ini file onto a disk or CD. and then as long as you can get into DOS on your computer you can replace it. although im not sure this will result in everything being fixed. as his Windows XP boot.ini file will differ to yours. due to different hardware. but good luck anyway

 

[bigbmxdave]

Hmmmm, I just had a look around my computer and found a boot.ini.backup file in my c:/windows/pss folder. might be worth checking if youve got one as well.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

put your XP cd in
Go to recovery console
One of the things under help is to fix boot stuff, try all the fixes that look good

You should be up and running in no time

 

[killians45]

goto the recovery console and type 'bootcfg /rebuild' then press enter and follow the directions. Usually a few more steps, the o/s type and load... when it asks for OS load options use ' /fastdetect' to auto detect available optoins. Oh, dont include the ' in the above.

 

[derfist]

well, too bad my dad doesn't have the recovery console installed. well, i guess the only safest way to fix this problem is to boot from the win XP cd n press the 'R' key to repair everything. then i'll intall the recovery console after it fixes the problem. thanks 4 the help.

 

[killians45]

the recovery console is ON the XP cd, boot to it and use 'R' for repair (loads the recovery console).