Can't boot my system
- Thread starter LazarusNK
- Start date
first, if you used an sp2 cd to repair an sp3 installation you have really messed up, 
you can only run a repair if the cd is at the same service pack as is installed .
what you need to do is run checkdisk first to see if you can then boot normally, but the repair has switched everything back to the service pack on your cd, it would be better to now reinstall the entire os and start over. or burn a copy of hirens boot cd and enter your os that way:
Courtesy of Jose Ibarra
Make yourself a Hiren's Boot CD which you can download from here:
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
The ZIP file is large, so the download will probably take a little while to complete bit it is worth it. Then unzip the download to extract the Hirens.BootCD.ISO file that will be used to create your new bootable CD.
Creating a bootable CD from a .ISO file is not the same as just copying the .ISO file to a blank CD. You have to use software that understands how to burn a .ISO file to a CD to create a bootable CD.
In the Hiren's ZIP file are the BurnToCD.cmd file that you can double click to launch it, but I have never used it and prefer to use ImgBurn.
If you need a free and easy CD burning software package, here is a popular free program:
http://www.imgburn.com/
When installing ImgBurn, DO NOT install anything from UniBlue or the Ask toolbar (never install the ASK toolbar for anything).
Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61
It would be a good idea to test your new bootable CD on a computer that is working.
You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk.
These adjustments are made before Windows tries to load. If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.
When booting on the Hiren's CD you will see a menu of options. Choose the Mini XP option. Then it will appear that Windows is being loaded and you will be presented with a desktop that has the look and feel of the Windows Explorer interface you are already used to using.
One way to check the disk for errors is to open My Computer and right click your afflicted drive and choose Properties, Tools, Error-checking, Check Now... put a check mark in both the boxes and then Start.
Sometimes that doesn't work, so you can also click Start, Run and in the box enter:
cmd
Click OK to open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command (assuming XP is installed on your C drive)
chkdsk c: /r
This disk checking can take a long time (perhaps several to many hours) depending on the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what the disk checking finds to do.
Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find.
Depending on the the speed of your system, the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what chkdsk finds to do, it may take a long time for chkdsk with error correction to complete (several to many hours) or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something so don't interrupt it. It will finish eventually one way or the other. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress. It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.
You may have to run the chkdsk c: /r more than once.
you can only run a repair if the cd is at the same service pack as is installed .
what you need to do is run checkdisk first to see if you can then boot normally, but the repair has switched everything back to the service pack on your cd, it would be better to now reinstall the entire os and start over. or burn a copy of hirens boot cd and enter your os that way:
Courtesy of Jose Ibarra
Make yourself a Hiren's Boot CD which you can download from here:
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
The ZIP file is large, so the download will probably take a little while to complete bit it is worth it. Then unzip the download to extract the Hirens.BootCD.ISO file that will be used to create your new bootable CD.
Creating a bootable CD from a .ISO file is not the same as just copying the .ISO file to a blank CD. You have to use software that understands how to burn a .ISO file to a CD to create a bootable CD.
In the Hiren's ZIP file are the BurnToCD.cmd file that you can double click to launch it, but I have never used it and prefer to use ImgBurn.
If you need a free and easy CD burning software package, here is a popular free program:
http://www.imgburn.com/
When installing ImgBurn, DO NOT install anything from UniBlue or the Ask toolbar (never install the ASK toolbar for anything).
Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61
It would be a good idea to test your new bootable CD on a computer that is working.
You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk.
These adjustments are made before Windows tries to load. If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.
When booting on the Hiren's CD you will see a menu of options. Choose the Mini XP option. Then it will appear that Windows is being loaded and you will be presented with a desktop that has the look and feel of the Windows Explorer interface you are already used to using.
One way to check the disk for errors is to open My Computer and right click your afflicted drive and choose Properties, Tools, Error-checking, Check Now... put a check mark in both the boxes and then Start.
Sometimes that doesn't work, so you can also click Start, Run and in the box enter:
cmd
Click OK to open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command (assuming XP is installed on your C drive)
chkdsk c: /r
This disk checking can take a long time (perhaps several to many hours) depending on the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what the disk checking finds to do.
Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find.
Depending on the the speed of your system, the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what chkdsk finds to do, it may take a long time for chkdsk with error correction to complete (several to many hours) or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something so don't interrupt it. It will finish eventually one way or the other. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress. It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.
You may have to run the chkdsk c: /r more than once.
I am not sure, but you can try to install sp3 and see if that will bring everything up to the level it was at, or you can run a system restore
to run checkdisk from hirens, you would use minixp, on the minixp desktop
click Start, Run and in the box enter:
cmd
Click OK to open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command (assuming XP is installed on your C drive)
chkdsk c: /r
then press enter
let chkdsk run till it is finished.
then type exit and enter, then restart pc, go into bios and change the order to hdd first as boot device and see if you can boot normally.
if this does not work, then we can try a system restore to the point before all this happened.
==
I will be up for a little while longer and will check back in a half hour or so.
to run checkdisk from hirens, you would use minixp, on the minixp desktop
click Start, Run and in the box enter:
cmd
Click OK to open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command (assuming XP is installed on your C drive)
chkdsk c: /r
then press enter
let chkdsk run till it is finished.
then type exit and enter, then restart pc, go into bios and change the order to hdd first as boot device and see if you can boot normally.
if this does not work, then we can try a system restore to the point before all this happened.
==
I will be up for a little while longer and will check back in a half hour or so.
Last edited:
okay, I am going to sleep right now, 3 am
when I boot to hiren's, and then when hirens loads I choose minixp, I get the whole desktop. Am not sure why you did not, but maybe your download got corrupted or your burn did not turn out correctly, did you try to burn again??
---
I would next say to burn a cd with the recovery console on it and then you can run checkdisk and system restore, but checkdisk should be run first, that is if you can get it to boot.
Here's how to make a bootable xp recovery console cd
Courtesy of JoseIbarra
Since many folks do not have a genuine bootable XP installation CD - either because they never got one with their store bought system, they lost it, broke it, scratched it, the dog ate it, etc. it usually is a dead end to suggest using the XP installation CD (since most people don't have one).
Suggesting it usually just results in wasted email cycles so it make sense to assume that nobody has one. nobody has any friends with one either and contacting your hardware vendor to send you one is also going to be a waste of time.
Instead of suggesting things that will only work some of the time for some people sometimes maybe, I would rather suggest things that are usually going to work all the time for all folks.
This will let you make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD (no XP media required).
If you have no bootable XP media (or are not sure what you have) create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD and be sure.
This is not the same as any recovery disks that might have come with a store bought system.
You can make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD by downloading an ISO file and burning it to a CD.
The bootable ISO image file you need to download is called:
xp_rec_con.iso
Download the ISO file from my OneDrive (everybody has a OneDrive for sharing files):
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=EC673DF6F8DFEE84&id=EC673DF6F8DFEE84!109&authkey=!AEMs5lwt9Todokc
When you see the files available for download, you may not see the file extension (.exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.), but when you download them they will have the correct extension.
When you download the file (especially if you use Internet Explorer), when you get a chance to save the file, your browser may not save the file with an extension (like .exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.) so you will have to manually add the proper extension to the file when you download the file before you save it.
You can download the file with no extension and then rename the file to add the proper extension. You don't want to try to use a file called xp _rec_con when the file name really needs to be called xp_rec_con.iso (if the downloaded file has no extension you will have to change the name of the file to add the proper extension to get it to work.
Use a new CD and this free and easy program to burn your ISO file and create your bootable CD:
http://www.imgburn.com/
Like many third party programs you might install, the ImgBurn installation defaults to installing things you probably don't want installed on your system in the form of extra Internet browser toolbars or may make other adjustments to your browser. You don't want that so you have to pay attention during the installation.
When clicking through the installation screens be sure to pay attention to the screens and always choose a Custom install and UNcheck the following (or any other things like it):
UNcheck:
Install the AVG toolbar and set AVG Secure Search as my default search provider
Set AVG Secure Search as my homepage and newly opened tabs
Choose custom installation again and UNcheck the following:
Uncheck:
Install QuickShare
Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61
It would be a good idea to test your bootable CD on a computer that is working.
You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk. These adjustments are made before Windows tries to load. If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.
When you boot on the CD, follow the prompts:
Press any key to boot from CD...
The Windows Setup... will proceed.
Press 'R' to enter the Recovery Console.
Select the installation you want to access (usually 1: C:\WINDOWS)
You may be asked to enter the Administrator password (usually empty).
You should be in the C:\WINDOWS folder. This is the same as the C:\WINDOWS folder you see in explorer.
The Recovery Console allows basic file commands like: copy, rename, replace, delete, cd, chkdsk, fixboot, fixmbr, etc.
For a list of Recovery Console commands, enter help at the prompt or read about the XP Recovery Console here:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ocs/en-us/recovery_console_cmds.mspx?mfr=true
A good idea before starting things is to first verify the integrity of your file system using the chkdsk command.
From the command prompt window run the chkdsk command on the drive where Windows is installed to try to repair any problems on the afflicted drive.
Running chkdsk is fine even if it doesn't find any problems. It will not hurt anything to run it.
Assuming your boot drive is C, run the following command:
chkdsk C: /r
Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find.
It may take a long time for chkdsk to complete or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress. It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.
You should run chkdsk /r again until it finds no errors to correct.
Remove the CD and type 'exit' to leave the RC and restart the computer.
You do not have to adjust the BIOS again to boot on the HDD since the CD will not be present.
---
I would next say to burn a cd with the recovery console on it and then you can run checkdisk and system restore, but checkdisk should be run first, that is if you can get it to boot.
Here's how to make a bootable xp recovery console cd
Courtesy of JoseIbarra
Since many folks do not have a genuine bootable XP installation CD - either because they never got one with their store bought system, they lost it, broke it, scratched it, the dog ate it, etc. it usually is a dead end to suggest using the XP installation CD (since most people don't have one).
Suggesting it usually just results in wasted email cycles so it make sense to assume that nobody has one. nobody has any friends with one either and contacting your hardware vendor to send you one is also going to be a waste of time.
Instead of suggesting things that will only work some of the time for some people sometimes maybe, I would rather suggest things that are usually going to work all the time for all folks.
This will let you make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD (no XP media required).
If you have no bootable XP media (or are not sure what you have) create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD and be sure.
This is not the same as any recovery disks that might have come with a store bought system.
You can make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD by downloading an ISO file and burning it to a CD.
The bootable ISO image file you need to download is called:
xp_rec_con.iso
Download the ISO file from my OneDrive (everybody has a OneDrive for sharing files):
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=EC673DF6F8DFEE84&id=EC673DF6F8DFEE84!109&authkey=!AEMs5lwt9Todokc
When you see the files available for download, you may not see the file extension (.exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.), but when you download them they will have the correct extension.
When you download the file (especially if you use Internet Explorer), when you get a chance to save the file, your browser may not save the file with an extension (like .exe, .dll, .cpl, .sys, .zip, etc.) so you will have to manually add the proper extension to the file when you download the file before you save it.
You can download the file with no extension and then rename the file to add the proper extension. You don't want to try to use a file called xp _rec_con when the file name really needs to be called xp_rec_con.iso (if the downloaded file has no extension you will have to change the name of the file to add the proper extension to get it to work.
Use a new CD and this free and easy program to burn your ISO file and create your bootable CD:
http://www.imgburn.com/
Like many third party programs you might install, the ImgBurn installation defaults to installing things you probably don't want installed on your system in the form of extra Internet browser toolbars or may make other adjustments to your browser. You don't want that so you have to pay attention during the installation.
When clicking through the installation screens be sure to pay attention to the screens and always choose a Custom install and UNcheck the following (or any other things like it):
UNcheck:
Install the AVG toolbar and set AVG Secure Search as my default search provider
Set AVG Secure Search as my homepage and newly opened tabs
Choose custom installation again and UNcheck the following:
Uncheck:
Install QuickShare
Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61
It would be a good idea to test your bootable CD on a computer that is working.
You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk. These adjustments are made before Windows tries to load. If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.
When you boot on the CD, follow the prompts:
Press any key to boot from CD...
The Windows Setup... will proceed.
Press 'R' to enter the Recovery Console.
Select the installation you want to access (usually 1: C:\WINDOWS)
You may be asked to enter the Administrator password (usually empty).
You should be in the C:\WINDOWS folder. This is the same as the C:\WINDOWS folder you see in explorer.
The Recovery Console allows basic file commands like: copy, rename, replace, delete, cd, chkdsk, fixboot, fixmbr, etc.
For a list of Recovery Console commands, enter help at the prompt or read about the XP Recovery Console here:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ocs/en-us/recovery_console_cmds.mspx?mfr=true
A good idea before starting things is to first verify the integrity of your file system using the chkdsk command.
From the command prompt window run the chkdsk command on the drive where Windows is installed to try to repair any problems on the afflicted drive.
Running chkdsk is fine even if it doesn't find any problems. It will not hurt anything to run it.
Assuming your boot drive is C, run the following command:
chkdsk C: /r
Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find.
It may take a long time for chkdsk to complete or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress. It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.
You should run chkdsk /r again until it finds no errors to correct.
Remove the CD and type 'exit' to leave the RC and restart the computer.
You do not have to adjust the BIOS again to boot on the HDD since the CD will not be present.
that is what the recovery console looks like.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/rconsole.htm
read above on the recovery console
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/rconsole.htm
read above on the recovery console
following are tutorials to use recovery console to do a system restore, pick one and then I would print it.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001256.htm
http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=105819
youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0JI5wSvrXY
if you have ever watched a youtube video then you know that there are similar items listed to the right side, you might watch a couple of these videos.
NOTE:
===
if you were able to get to safe mode or into hiren's, you could also use command prompt:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/systemrestorecp.htm
==EDIT==
If you are burning the cds on the win7 pc, insure that you have extracted the boot image from a xp cd with and not from the win7 pc
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001256.htm
http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showtopic=105819
youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0JI5wSvrXY
if you have ever watched a youtube video then you know that there are similar items listed to the right side, you might watch a couple of these videos.
NOTE:
- watch the spaces carefully when typing in the commands.
- if you get prompted for a password, just press enter
- on some keyboards, the numlock will not be activated and you will have to use the numbers at the top of the keyboard to select the number 1
===
if you were able to get to safe mode or into hiren's, you could also use command prompt:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/systemrestorecp.htm
==EDIT==
If you are burning the cds on the win7 pc, insure that you have extracted the boot image from a xp cd with and not from the win7 pc
You can use a win 7 I believe, but the hiren's boot cd is already in ISO form and bootable,
you would need to put your xp install cd into the drive, and in imgburn, under write image file to disk mode, once you have selected the file from the desktop, you are going to go to one of the tabs and look for the section on retrieving the boot img, which you will direct to the cd drive that has the xp install disc, once this has been retrieved, then you will remove the cd, install the cd you want to burn to, and then let img burn burn the cd with the proper boot img.
win7 and xp boot imgs are not the same.
you would need to put your xp install cd into the drive, and in imgburn, under write image file to disk mode, once you have selected the file from the desktop, you are going to go to one of the tabs and look for the section on retrieving the boot img, which you will direct to the cd drive that has the xp install disc, once this has been retrieved, then you will remove the cd, install the cd you want to burn to, and then let img burn burn the cd with the proper boot img.
win7 and xp boot imgs are not the same.
also , what is the make model and model number of the pc??