XP won't boot. Black screen, flashing cursor.

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Disillusion

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I rebooted my laptop today and when it got past the POST, the screen turned black and there was a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It wouldn't boot at all.

I tried getting into the recovery console by booting off of the installation CD. I did a FIXBOOT and a FIXMBR and still nothing. So, I figured I would repair the OS, but now the installation CD can't even find a Windows installation.

I ran Knoppix and Ubuntu live CDs to see if they could mount the drive, neither one could because of some error. I ran GParted to see if there was something wrong with the partition and sure enough it gave me some kind of error as well. As if the filesystem is corrupt or something.

Now, I can't get the recovery console open because it doesn't even know there's a Windows installation there. What do I do? I've never had this problem before.
 
Well if it even can't find a windows installation the only I could suggest and you know what it is, is formatting the drive.
 
If the HDD lost your windows install there is only 2 possibilties.

1. The HDD got switched somehow. Which is very unlikely.
2. The HDD is on its way out and has started to lose massive data. Which is more likely the cause.

Buy a new HDD. Format and install Windows on that. Then try and recover any data from the old HDD.
 
I ran a diagnostics using a Hitachi diagnostics live CD and everything passed. I doubt the HDD is going out or has went out. But it is kind of odd that not even Linux live CDs will mount it.
 
is the drive SATA? if so did you install the driver with F6 ?

ive had harddrives that passed all the tests, but still were dying and couldnt get into windows
 
is the drive SATA? if so did you install the driver with F6 ?

ive had harddrives that passed all the tests, but still were dying and couldnt get into windows
Yes, it's a SATA drive in my laptop. I never installed any driver for it and have never needed to.
 
get a erd commander cd 2005 for future references. it can restore your computer to a time that it work via system restore.

I would now try spin rite 6 to fix those files
 
I'm going to try the Bart PE Windows live CD when I get home later tonight. I will post my results.
 
I'm going to try the Bart PE Windows live CD when I get home later tonight. I will post my results.

I would follow my advice. erd is a rich man's version of bart.

spinrite 6 is the best hdd fixer out there period
 
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