JedMeister

I reckon you may be able to recover some of your files. Probably first thing I'd do is disconnect it and start having a look around for recovery tools. I know there are a number of freeware and shareware ones, although I don't know of any off the top of my head nor how well they'll work. Get your system running, install a few tools you like the look of and plug your drive back in and see how you go! Also (and probably obviously) don't write anything to that drive! Have some space on another hard drive to copy the recovered files to.

Firstly I'd like to say thanks jaclaz for your awesome post in the topic you linked to (this post here specifically). That is the nicest, most straight-forward laid-out explanation of boot.ini I reckon I've ever seen! Well it works for me anyway! Nice work! Thanks too for persevering as I didn't follow the link initially either! ....And back to you Hermit. There is two ways to find out: 1) Try it and see, like I suggested before. - Add this line in the appropriate place in your boot.ini: multi(1)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Pro" /fastdetectDON"T CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE, save and reboot. Then select your new option (Windows XP Pro) and see if it works. If it fails to boot then restart it, go back into your x64 install (it'll do this by default anyway), and then perhaps try this instead: multi(1)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Pro" /fastdetectand so on until it works! 2) Have a look.... - inside your computer and in your manual. ..... As it is a SATA HDD then its unlikely to be on the same controller (I think) as the IDE drive, and perhaps your board only has one SATA controller, the manual is probably the best place to find out, that should even tell you which sockets are controlled by which controller (if it has more than one SATA controller). Then its just a case of seeing which socket you're plugged into! [edit]Actually, just looking over my post I've realised that I'm unclear whether the sockets have an explicit static rdisk in the ini or not. I mean, if you only have one HDD connected to a controller, is that disk automatically 0, or does it depend which socket it is connected to?

I reckon probably the best way to go is to add a line and see if it works, as long as you don't change anything else, worst case scenario is the added entry won't allow the pc to boot but you can just reset and try again! As for free AV, personally I have been using Avast free version for a number of years (both on x86 and x64) and I've found it works great!

You will find the boot.ini file in the root (think tree - bottom - not in any folders) of your system drive (sounds like yours is C:\ - usually is). It is a hidden system file so to find it you will need to show hidden files AND show protected operating system files. I assume its probably got both hidden at the moment. To show them, open an Explorer window (like My Computer) > Tools > Folder Options > View tab > find the two options and change them. Then you need to edit your boot.ini, I suspect you will need to add a line. This quote from this site: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?art...1910&page=7 (quote below) should give you an idea of what its meant to look like. Only thing is this one is for different partitions on the same drive. I'm pretty sure for your install, you'd change the last line to multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows x64 " /fastdetect ie change rdisk to 1 and partition to 1. Don't touch whichever one default points to and worst case scenario even if it doesn't work your pc will still boot. If your not completely sure do some reading online, this forum is pretty good, or just google, there's tons of info out there!

I 2nd UBCD4Win! Thats the gear!

My 10c worth: Always backup important data when doing any task like this, no matter how straightforward and easy it may seem to be (or even how easy it was last time)! Personally I don't like upgrades as all the ones I've done (admittedly not many) have always had bugs or instability issues (although never anything as bad as you're experiencing). I much prefer a clean (but nLited) install. Anyway, my first step at this point would be to backup all important data. Either use the recovery console (do able but a bit painful unless you know everything you want and where it is) or download and build UBCD4Win, boot off that and backup to portable HDD/USB/Server/DVD. You may be able to find out whats going on in your XP install from within UBCD4Win too. There maybe some way of stopping it from starting up the setup process and then it may just start into XP Home again, although to be honest I'm doubtful. I suspect its already overwritten files which may make it unusable, even if you can get Home to boot again, it'll probably be a bit unstable if some important files have been replaced. Failing that just do a clean XP Pro install. You may find that this path is actually the most time efficient and reliable. That's what I'd do, backup and clean install!

How did that happen? Any ideas? That may help you work out what you need to do to fix it. I'm guessing that your PC won't boot at all, what error messages are you getting when you try to boot? Does it start at all or what? It may be as simple as Ponch suggests or it could be such a whole world of pain that a backup of data and a clean reinstall may be the easiest answer. Its probably worth trying the fixmft and fixboot commands from within recovery console. But to be on the safe side, personally I'd be backing up all important info first just in case something goes evily wrong! UBCD4Win is probably the easiest way to backup data from a sick system, just follow the instructions on the site to build your CD and then either lash out on a new hard drive and copy across using UBCD4Win or buy a stack of DVDs and double check that UBCD4Win has a burner preinstalled (I'm sure it would but better check first!) You may even be able to fix your issue from within UBCD4Win too! Another path maybe to try some HDD utilities like a partition manager. Although generally these tools are not available free, and probably not a good idea to spend cash on something that may or may not work. You could try something like Hiren's Boot CD but as its considered warez I won't be providing any links! I like it here too much!

I agree! In theory it can be done, but it'd be so painful you could've simply just reinstalled on the drive you want 3 or 4 times instead! (I know I've tried! - I got as far as getting it to boot to my desktop but still a whole world of pain and instability!)Backup everything you want to keep and format and reinstall. To make sure you install to C: without any dependencies on a second drive, its best to install with only the HDD that you want to have C: on. Even if you only have one HDD, I'd get everything you want off it and format it. Just delete all partitions from within Windows setup and create the partition you want as C:. Make the other partitions later and you can have all the drive letters exactly as you want them (from within Computer Management).

Quite possibly there is, but if not (or even in the meantime) surely it'd be really easy just to just have a script that deletes the backup and temp files after patching. I'm pretty sure you can even run CCleaner from the commandline, or at least silently. You could then either have it run as a startup item or on a schedule. Your 3rd party patching software may even have facility to start a program (such as CCleaner) after its run the patches?

You may even be able to do an upgrade install, not sure with OEM. In which case you get to keep all your programs as well. Although personally I still would backup your data at least (just in case something goes wrong). I think its preferable to backup everything you want to keep and do a format and clean install. I'd make a nLited disc from within your 2K environment first if I was you, that way you can slip stream SP3 on and remove a few things and make it unattended if you want. You can even preinstall some programs through the use of addons. Check out nLite here.

If you still want to go the 'find out exactly what it does to your system before you actually install it' route then here's a great utility for extracting any type of compressed file. Will extract almost anything apparently! Universal Extractor - http://legroom.net/software/uniextract Depending on how the installer itself is setup you may or may not be able to see what reg entries its going to change but you will be able to see the files it contains and possibly where they will be going to.

I agree with spacesurfer, backup important data now! Also more info would probably be helpful too! 1) Yes there are many different options for recovering data, I'm sure you'd find a number with Google. They probably range in price from free to $1000s, so it depends on how much your data is worth to you!?! You can get software options that work form within Windows such as PC Inspector (I've used this myself and achieved a degree of success) and other ones that boot into DOS (or similar). Remember too that every time you write to that partition its gonna decrease your chances of recovery. 2) If the partition appears in Disk Manger but not in Explorer, try right clicking in Disk Manager and make sure 'active' is selected. Also check that a drive letter is assigned and if not assign one. Usually changes occur straight away but in some circumstance I've found that you need to reboot.

Yes, there is a client and a server version. Have a read here.If that doesn't float your boat then have a look here As you can see, there are plenty of other free options!

Try booting into XP Recovery Console (using the XP CD) and then fix the Boot Sector & the MBR. First type "fixboot" (no quotes) then "fixmbr" (no quotes) - press enter after each command. Be aware though this will probably break your Ubuntu install, so as with any sensitive disk operations that may cause data loss,to be on the safe side, you should backup all the important stuff first in case something goes wrong.

Sometimes, if its a compressed executable, you can just uncompress it (with WinRAR or 7zip). Most virus scanners actually scan memory whilst installing so if its a known virus it should be picked up anyway. But if you really want to fully check and understand what its gonna do to your system before you do it you'll need to use some sort of virtual machine (as geek said) or some sort of decompiler (again as geek suggested). Personally I think its probably way more effort than its worth. With some good AV, backed up by tools such as Spybot S&D, Spyware Blaster and HijackThis, system restore turned on etc, only downloading from reputable sources and not opening attachments from people you don't know, you shouldn't have too many troubles.

Probably the easiest way is like UserNaMeJoe is suggesting. There are other places that do this too, such as rapidshare and megaupload (and plenty more). If you live in the US MSN/Hotmail/Windows Live has a new feature where you can upload files and provide people with a download link (I was reading about it a while ago but its only available in US so don't have a link handy - should find it easy with google). The other option, if you want to actually host it on your own PC is to use some sort of FTP server. I haven't done this myself but I'm sur it'd be fairly straight forward and I'm sure there'd be some free/opensource software about to do this with. If you're using a ADSL modem/router, you'll probably need to setup port forwarding so your FTP server will be visible to the net.

"NTLDR is missing" generally means that the PC can't find the files it needs on the harddrive to boot. When you say you're creating a boot disk, I assume you mean you're trying to make a windows install CD? If so then I assume you're getting the message after the initial reboot after the first text/DOS install screens? If so then perhaps you're not integrating the correct drivers? Or perhaps the CD you created is somehow corrupted or scratched? Does it work OK when you just use a floppy with the drivers on? Perhaps test it that way and when you have that working integrate the same drivers onto your nLited WinXP CD. Hope that helps?!?

Nice work! I'll happily test too although I'll only be able to test in VM if its not available soon (as I have a system I need to get up and running on win2k asap).

Firstly Nice work shark! Also (off topic) your codec pack really rocks! Personally I use Winamp for everything except DVD and (obviously) streaming media inside browser windows. So is it possible to do a Wnamp (audio&video) installation? I'd be happy with your installer as-is but with all the video options (ie 'video file support') checked (well 'associate with video files' would be good too!) Although I must admit that I sometimes use Winamp for ripping so 'sonic ripping/burning support' and 'cbdb for recognizing CDs' would be handy too. But hey if thats outside your scope then perhaps you could provide those of us who are keen, with some info so that we can customise our own setup? Hey that'd save you the hassle of producing numerous versions too. Regardless cheers for your efforts so far!