Boot Problem on Windows XP

[njven]

I finally got an operating system working on my PC. I had Vista and it was controlling the MBR and bootloader and all that. Some of the operating system was corrupt and I decided to delete the partition thinking that I could just use the Windows XP CD to recover the bootloader and MBR. That didn't work right. It took me around 6 hours to get a working operating system besides live cds. I'm using Ubuntu right now. When I choose XP from the GRUB boot menu I get this error:

A error has occured in the disk.
Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart

I can still access the partition from Ubuntu fine though. I don't have any external drives to backup on.

So I need to either fix it, or keep it intact.

1) How your disk is setup (how many partitions, which type, etc)

HD0,0 WinXP Primary

HD0,1 Ubuntu Primary

HD0,2 Storage (file storage) Primary

2) What is in the Grub menu.lst entry that you try to boot with

title		Windows XP
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

3) Which kind of source XP CD you have (recovery CD, Full Install, OEM Install, etc.)

Full Install

4) How did you try (and failed to) install XP

I tried to do a repair, but it wouldn't let me boot to the partition to finish the repair.

PIC

Edited April 20, 2008 by njven

[jaclaz]

There is NO way anyone can help you with those few information you give.

Please post:

1) How your disk is setup (how many partitions, which type, etc)

2) What is in the Grub menu.lst entry that you try to boot with

3) Which kind of source XP CD you have (recovery CD, Full Install, OEM Install, etc.)

4) How did you try (and failed to) install XP

jaclaz

[njven]

Anyone have any ideas? Load FailSafe Defaults in BIOS does nothing if I forgot that. If I install over top on XP it will reset the registry right?

[JedMeister]

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.

[jaclaz]

I would try the "fixboot" only first.

Right now your booting works like this:

1) MBR loads grub

2) grub chainloads bootsector

3) either grub or bootsector fails

Fixmbr will overwrite the MBR code, removing the loading of grub.

If you have a floppy, or can burn a CD, I would try with grub4dos that allows to chainload directly NTLDR, bypassing the bootsector.

Get "old" version 0.4.2:

http://grub4dos.jot.com/WikiHome

You need to make sure you have NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI in root of (hd0,0).

jaclaz