aoresteen Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 I am trying to get a Windows XP SP3 installation to boot. All I get is a black screen with a flashing cursor. Bear with me, this is a complicated case. I have been fighting with this laptop for 4 days now. I have been installing XP since it came out. I have done easily over 500 XP installs. I have never had this issue. Please Note: ======================================== I CAN NOT DO A CLEAN INSTALL of Win XP!! I have to get this XP installation working. The old 80GB 2.5" hard drive died and I replaced it with a 120GB 2.5" Samsung hard drive. It contained a critical application (for me) that the vendor requires it to be "activated" by their server when you install it. If you do not "activate" it, it refuses to run after a few days. Here's the catch: The vendor has shut down it's server that does the activation for this version of the application. And the vendor does not offer an off-line activation option as "support" has run out. They say "buy a new version". The new versions do not offer me any new features that I need or would ever use. ======================================== The target computer is a Compaq nc6220 laptop. Compaq shipped this laptop with Windows XP Professional. It's specs are: 2.26GHz Pentium M 2GB RAM 120GB hard drive BIOS is the last one released The 120GB hard drive is partitioned with 3 PRIMARY partitions: Partition 1: 2GB FAT for IBM PC DOS 7 Partition 2: 68.37GB NTFS 3.1 for Windows XP Pro SP3 Partition 3: 41.43GB NTFS 3.1 for DATA. The new(er) 120GB hard drive passed diagnostics and is working fine. Partition 1 when set to ACTIVE boots IBM PC DOS 7 with no issues. Partition 2 when set to ACTIVE boots to a black screen with a flashing cursor in the upper left hand corner. I CAN boot the Windows XP partition IF I boot Hiren's boot CD 15.2 and use the the option to boot Windows. XP comes up fine and I have loaded all the nc6220 drivers and Device Manager is fine. My app runs fine. It just will not boot on it's own. Here's what I have tried: 1. I booted the Windows XP Pro SP3 installation CD, used the Recovery Console, and logged into the XP installation. I executed FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. No help. 2. I verified that BOOT.INI was correct to boot XP from Drive 0 and Partition 2. 3. Replaced NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from the WinXP media & copied them into the C:\ root directory. No help. 4. I verified that the HD MBR has NT5.2 boot code in it. I am stumped. Why won't it boot on it's own when Hiren's Boot CD can get it booted? The MBR code has to be correct, the VBR has to be right, and NTLDR & NTDETECT.COM have to be correct for Hiren to boot it. Yet it hangs when it tries to boot on its own. The only thing different from the 80GD drive install is I now have a 3rd partition for data. More Info: ======== I used Macrium Backup to clone my desktop WinXP installation that had the app installed (license allows 1 desktop & 1 laptop installation). The desktop had been used to dual boot Windows 8.1 & Win XP. When I bought a new Win 10 computer, I removed Win 8.1 from the old computer and configured XP to boot alone. I did find BOOTMGR.EXE in the root of the cloned partition and deleted it. A leftover from Win 8.1. At some point I will use a boot manager to dual boot the laptop with PC-DOS 7 and WinXP but for now I would just like to get XP to boot on it's own. Any ideas what to do next? Thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 What was the source computer? Attach a zipped binary image of the VBR and the next sector, please. The XP SP3 you're trying to transplant was installed on NTFS or FAT32? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vistapocalypse Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 What security software is installed? At least on Vista and Windows 7, “black screen with cursor” was sometimes an antivirus conflict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainyShadow Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 @aoresteen Start BOOTICE (it's included in HBCD). Click "Process PBR", select the XP partition and install either NTLDR or BOOTMGR boot record. I've seen cases where the latter boots XP, while the former doesn't. Next, open the XP partition in Explorer and remove/rename bootmgr if it's there (make sure you can see hidden files). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 For the record, the flashing cursor (top left, white on black) is often connected to an issue between CHS and LBA entries in the MBR partition table (and/or in the PBR geometry data). This often happens when a not entirely "proper" tool i used to do the partitioning or (this used to be a common case some years ago) when you transplant a disk from one PC to another (particularly laptops there were a lot of BIOSes around that used 240 heads geometry instead of 255). BUT: 13 hours ago, aoresteen said: I did find BOOTMGR.EXE in the root of the cloned partition and deleted it. A leftover from Win 8.1. WHY? Was it really-really BOOTMGR.EXE or more simply BOOTMGR? WHO told you that it was unneeded? In some dual boot installs the BOOTMGR (not the BOOTMGR.EXE) is the actual loader for NT (XP) systems (and the PBR code is the "60" one). There may be several reasons why now you cannot boot the NTLDR (even if you changed the PBR to "52"), one could be the actual placing of the files (NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM) in the volume. You can trouble shoot the issue using grub4dos. Best would be if you have a (spare) USB stick and you can boot to a grub4dos on it, grub4dos can be run just fine from MS-DOS (as grub.exe), I am not so sure about it running under IBM PC-DOS 7 , it should work but it has not been tested as extensively as in DOS. Anyway, if you want to try: 1) get grub4dos from here: http://grub4dos.chenall.net/downloads/grub4dos-0.4.6a-2019-12-30/ http://dl.grub4dos.chenall.net/grub4dos-0.4.6a-2019-12-30.7z (this is last version in 2019) 2) from the .7z extract only grub.exe 3) copy it to the first partition, make it active and boot to PC-DOS, and from it run grub.exe 4) you should get to a grub> prompt Otherwise get RMPREPUSB (easiest method): https://www.rmprepusb.com/ and make a bootable USB stick with grub4dos, you will still get to the grub> prompt. Reply when you are at it (one way or the other) and I will suggest you the commands to test. jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dencorso Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Welcome to this thread, @jaclaz! But... where is the OP? Has he/she gone put out the trash and got hit by a 10-ton meteorite? Did he/she take out the Velostat cap to wash his/her hair and then aliens took the opportunity to abduct him/her? Or maybe the Compaq nc6220 laptop just disappeared in a puff of purple smoke as some old Compaqs are wont to do? So many questions... and no answers yet... it's sort of depressing, isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 36 minutes ago, dencorso said: Welcome to this thread, @jaclaz! But... where is the OP? Has he/she gone put out the trash and got hit by a 10-ton meteorite? Did he/she take out the Velostat cap to wash his/her hair and then aliens took the opportunity to abduct him/her? Or maybe the Compaq nc6220 laptop just disappeared in a puff of purple smoke as some old Compaqs are wont to do? So many questions... and no answers yet... it's sort of depressing, isn't it? Well, having a reply in a time between 2 and 10 days is not so uncommon on other forums, here we are usually exceptionally more responsive, and personally, even if I started a few hours late, I am moving fast . jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aoresteen Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 (edited) Thanks all! The good news is that the Compaq 6220 is now booting on its own . I followed RaniyShadow's instructions to use BOOTICE. It took two tries. The first time I used the NTLDR option under "Process PBR". It did not work. Same results as before i.e. black screen w/flashing cursor. Next I tried "Process PBR" with the BOOTMGR option. Bang! Windows XP is now booting! (I tried using Muti Quote but I must be doing something wrong as I could not get it work). For the record here are the answers to the questions that were asked: dencorso "What was the source computer?": It was a home built desktop. ASUS P5QL Pro socket 775 mobo Q9650 3.0GHz CPU 16 GB RAM. Vistapocalypse "What security software is installed?" None. The source desktop's AV was removed before the installation was cloned. jaclaz "For the record, the flashing cursor (top left, white on black) is often connected to an issue between CHS and LBA entries in the MBR partition table (and/or in the PBR geometry data). This often happens when a not entirely "proper" tool i used to do the partitioning or (this used to be a common case some years ago) when you transplant a disk from one PC to another (particularly laptops there were a lot of BIOSes around that used 240 heads geometry instead of 255)." Since the transplanted XP installation DOES boot with Hiren's CD, CHS/LBA & head geometry is not an issue. "Was it really-really BOOTMGR.EXE or more simply BOOTMGR?" It was BOOTMGR.EXE. "WHO told you that it was unneeded?" After I removed Win 8.1 from the source computer, it booted to XP with no issues. Then when I had the issues with the nc6220 laptop, I researched both XP & 8.1 boot processes. I deleted BOOTMGR.EXE from the desktop source XP installation. It still booted (and still does) XP just fine. So I also deleted it from the laptop. Here's my source on the boot process for XP & Vista and above : https://neosmart.net/wiki/windows-xp-boot-process/ Thanks for the info on GRUB4DOS. I normally use System Commander to dual boot Win XP & below. When I installed Win 8.1 I used it's dual boot feature which was - horrible. I will use it on another system that has Win XP and Win 7 on it. dencorso "But... where is the OP? Has he/she gone put out the trash and got hit by a 10-ton meteorite?" No, it was only a 1.657 ton rock as I took out our garbage/recycle bins last night and I was able to side-step it "Did he/she take out the Velostat cap to wash his/her hair and then aliens took the opportunity to abduct him/her?" No, I just send them a coded Morse code radio message and they pick me up take me where I want to go. But I stayed home last night and - slept "Or maybe the Compaq nc6220 laptop just disappeared in a puff of purple smoke as some old Compaqs are wont to do?" Not yet but I am also working on a Compaq LTE 5380 and while it was on life support it is now working and loving the Windows 98SE OS on it. It is a crucial computer in my recording studio and is un-replaceable. "So many questions... and no answers yet... it's sort of depressing, isn't it?" Not at all!!! Now that it's booting I'm happy as a clam POP QUIZ: Why would a 1997ish 133MHz Pentium with 80MB of RAM Compaq LTE 5380 running Windows 98SE be so important in a recording studio? HINT: It deals with the PCMCIA slot...... Edited July 16, 2020 by aoresteen spelling 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 Ok, for the record that reference is "wrong" in the sense that it applies to a "simple" XP system (not one that has been made in dual boot with a later (Vista, 7 or 8/8.1) NT system). THIS: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html (scroll down until you find "Dual-Boot Sequence") is more or less what happens in these cases (and what is more or less happening to you from your report). Point is that BOOTMGR (not BOOTMGR.EXE) is invoked by the PBR code and can read directly the BOOT.INI (needing not the NTLDR) limited to the Windows XP (NT/2K) entries. So what you are having now is: BIOS->MBR->Active Partition->PBR->BOOTMGR->BOOT.INI->Windows XP or (but I seriously doubt it): BIOS->MBR->Active Partition->PBR->BOOTMGR->NTLDR(+NTDETECT.COM)->BOOT.INI->Windows XP The above (even if it works) is technically "wrong", as what you should have should be: BIOS->MBR->Active Partition->PBR->NTLDR(+NTDETECT.COM)->BOOT.INI->Windows XP to have a "kosher" XP only system. If you wrote with BootIce or with any other tool a "NT60" PBR code invoking BOOTMGR, rest assured that it invokes BOOTMGR. The reason why the "NT52" PBR code (invoking NTLDR) doesn't work possibly (but it has to be checked) may depend from the fact that you copied NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM on an already filled up volume and the files were written to a too high LBA address OR it could be an issue, as said with geometry (either in the MBR partition table or in the PBR data, tools that can write the PBR code, such as BootIce or bootsect.exe, replace the code leaving the PBR data as it was and the NT/2K/XP bootsector code is sensible to these CHS geometry mismatches, to the point that there are patches for them). jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aoresteen Posted July 16, 2020 Author Share Posted July 16, 2020 37 minutes ago, jaclaz said: Ok, for the record that reference is "wrong" in the sense that it applies to a "simple" XP system (not one that has been made in dual boot with a later (Vista, 7 or 8/8.1) NT system). .......... jaclaz Thanks jadaz. Your post and the link are very helpful. I'm glad my Windows 10 computer is not dual booting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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