Windows hangs at WindowsXP Logo during boot

[LadyBug]

I removed my 2nd hard drive from my computer and rebooted the computer. I then got a list of errors (such as ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt, etc... ) which I fixed in DOS and rebooted after each fix. Now when I try to boot, I get as far as the Windows XP logo screen with the windows "flag" and 4 colors and the blue "progress bar" underneath (the one where the blue bars move from left to right) and then it just hangs indefinitely. I have to manually turn the power off and turn the machine back on.

I can boot in SAFE MODE no problem. When it is loading the drivers, it stops at "agp440.sys"

In safe mode, I disabled the display driver and rebooted. Same problem. No change. Still hangs.

I went back and edited the boot.ini file with "/sos" to see what happens.

I get a blue screen with two navy bars top and bottom and medium blue in middle in which the following text is printed:

"Microsoft Windows Version 5.1 (Build 2600: Service Pack 2)

1 System Processor [1024 MB Memory] Multiprocessor Kernel"

And that's it... it just HANGS there....

I've been trying to fix this for the last 7 hours and I'm at wits end. Anybody have any idea what's happening and how I can fix this?

Thanks very much!

[eyeball]

Back in safe mode in device manager click on view -> show hidden devices and make sure nothing else graphics card related is lurking. Other than this i would say that you need to remove the boot start driver from the registry that is causing the problem. I cant remember where they are i think it is HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services but double check first . Export a backup of it and delete it and see what happens.

Good luck

[MIKE MANE 60]

EasyBCD bootloader.

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Easy...16CB8EAFBC6B599

[LadyBug]

Well, I solved the problem (indirectly). After spending an entire day trying different fixes, including chkdsk /r and even running my restore image program from DOS, nothing worked so I ended up disconnecting the C: drive and connecting a spare hard drive as Master on which I did a fresh install of XP, then I reconnected the corrupted "C:" drive as Slave and ran the restore program from the "Master" drive in Windows (not DOS) and then switched the C: drive back to Master, rebooted and everything was back to normal.

I have NO idea what happened but this solution worked, especially since I had just created a backup image a week ago.

When all else fails... do a restore. If this were to happen again, I would just skip the whole repair and just do a restore. Less of a headache!