Won't boot due to missing dll. after trying to add HDD

[jackslap]

Hello everyone,

I need some crazy help here or my wife will lose 3 weeks of work on a book she's writing.

I recently created a RAID stripe and have had it working great for a couple months. I wanted to add a third HDD to the system the other day as a backup/scratch drive. I plugged it in and booted up to a checkdisk screen that went nuts replacing files and finally rebooted on its own....to a BSOD that says "Verification of a known dll failed" It doesn't say which dll however.

It might help to know that the 3rd drive I tried to install did have an old version of windows 32 OS on it, but I was going to format it away once the computer booted, but it never did.

I looked around for a few hours and learned about the recovery console, but sadly my XP64 cd is not showing me the recovery console as an option when I boot from it. Is there anyway to get the recovery console up and running without the CD? I read some stuff about bootable USB drives, but I'm confused about them.

If I boot off a USB drive with a fresh installation of windows, then how could I fix my original installation on my hard drives? Wouldn't I just be manipulating the system files on the USB drive?

I saw some info also about the MBR being ruined, but I don't know how to restore that either. I'd consider myself to be pretty experienced with troubleshooting computer problems, but this one has me stumped. I can follow instructions very well. Any help is much appreciated.

[jackslap]

Additional info:

I learned about using BartPE to try and build a bootable version of windows without messing up my current installation, but when I try to create the iso file, it tells me that layout.inf is missing from my source copy of XP64.

I also tried to use the Ultimate boot CD for windows with the same problem. I don't get it. How can I be missing a file in my XP64 source files if the entire thing installs as a functioning OS on several different machines without a problem?

It might help to know however that my XP64 version was created using Nlite to sliptream in RAID drivers for my HDD because I don't have a floppy.

Someone on another forum said that using Nlite removes the functionality of the recovery console and that is why I don't have it available as an option when booting off my XP64 disk.

[fdv]

Sorry, man.

The BartPE / UBCD4WIN aren't compatible with XP64.

http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7274

I'd advise getting an XP32, however you need to, say via ebay or somesuch, or perhaps a company that has massively upgraded to Vista.

Buy yourself a cheap 4 gig flash stick, put the XP32 on it, add the UBCD4WIN software, and keep it handy so you always have a way to update and build a PE CD anywhere you go (or just keep a CD handy but those scratch).

[Ponch]

It might help to know however that my XP64 version was created using Nlite to sliptream in RAID drivers for my HDD because I don't have a floppy.

Someone on another forum said that using Nlite removes the functionality of the recovery console and that is why I don't have it available as an option when booting off my XP64 disk.

there are unattended mode that do not remove recovery console (read nLite's FAQ) . Maybe you can use nLite to recreate a 2nd cd with RAID drivers and recovery console ?

[jackslap]

Yay, you really like me. I thought for sure I had stumped everyone.

O.K. so I can't get xp64 to work with BartPE or UBCDFW, but...

Can I make an ultimate boot CD for windows 32 (I have a copy), boot up my machine using that disk, and then see my C: drive RAID and fix the missing .dll for THAT particular windows installation (the 64 bit one)?, and then be able to boot off the C: 64bit XP just like I used to? I just don't want to lose my **** pictures and my wifes book.

I'm still confused about this whole thing. I keep thinking that if I boot off the bootable CD that I will not be able to see my C: RAID with the original XP64 install on it.

[jackslap]

Can I......just re-install winxp64 on top of itself using my functioning nlite copy? I used to work as a computer salesmen and overheard the repair guys talking sometimes about installing xp over itself without losing data or settings.

Is that the best solution or the worst? Is the bootable version of XP32 as previously mentioned the better option?