My windows xp wont start up on my other hard drive

[Vegetto]

My windows xp wont start up on my other hard drive. When I woke up today starting up my computer it loaded up to a black screen where the windows xp should load up.

Things I tried, I tried running the windows xp cd but it wont work for some odd reason.

Then I ran windows 98se boot up disc and I got these errors:
Drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32 partition. There are several possible causes:
1.The Drive may need to be partitioned. To creat a partition on the drive run Fdisk.
2.You May be using third-part disk partitioning software.If you are using this type of software, remove the emergency boot disk and restart comp.
3.Some Viruses also cause your drive C not to register.

Last time I shut down my computer nothing was wrong with it. I have no clue why it would do this and I need a solution that I dont lose my saved files.

I tried running a Antivirus boot cd it didnt work it said it couldnt create temp log file or something so it wouldnt scan my harddrive.

I havent tried a windows xp boot up disc cause I couldnt make one. I tried making one but it didnt work. Some commands I cant use on my windows 98se boot up disc cause Im using windows xp.

[G Ray88]

More System information would be good. Before doing any like reformatting or anything like that check here. http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
Good Luck:t

[Vegetto]

THanx all look into this stuff

[Vegetto]

But Im really having trouble understanding this guide on how to make a boot able floppy.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314079

like this: Insert a blank floppy disk in drive A, and then format the disk by using Windows XP.

format it to what?

[G Ray88]

Vegetto, scroll down the webtrees page to, How to create a set of Emergency Floppies, then chose XP home edition or the XP-Pro edition. I was able to create a set of floppies, I was trying to recover a HD but there was just to much wrong to make it work, had to use the restore CD that came with the computer, only as a last resort. Good Luck:)
If you can't get the Windows XP-CD boot, check the BIOS to see what the boot order is, it should be 1:Floppie, 2: CD-ROM, 3: HD.
It will take 6 floppies to start the computer. Hope this some what helpful.

[Vegetto]

I just want to use one floppy not a set of floppys. What I meant by not getting the cd to work it boots from the cd starts up then just freezes or something. I dont have enough floppy disc, I have cd-rs though

[Sterling_Aug]

If you originally installed XP using the NTFS file system, then a Win98 boot floppy will not see the partition and you will get those error messages.

It sounds more like a hardware issue with your drive and/or cable. Check them first.

[Vegetto]

Originally posted by Sterling_Aug
If you originally installed XP using the NTFS file system, then a Win98 boot floppy will not see the partition and you will get those error messages.

It sounds more like a hardware issue with your drive and/or cable. Check them first.

I dont think its a hardware issue because I plug in a diffrent harddrive with windows xp and that works. Im in KNOPPIX and I can access my hard drive but I just dont know what to do to fix it. WHat should I do or what should I check because I can access my hard drive just dont know what to do.

[Vegetto]

I checked boot.ini IS this unusally?

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn


/NoExecute=OptIn
What is this?

[Midknyte]

looks normal to me. and you have sp2.

/noexecute is related to DEP in SP2. it's normal.

[Vegetto]

Yeah I have sp2. Would sp2 cause these problems anyone know?

[Strawbs]

Boot from your XP CD and try a >Repair Install (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm)<

[Vegetto]

Originally posted by Strawbs
Boot from your XP CD and try a >Repair Install (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm)<

I tried, I put the cd in then it boots after hitting any key then it goes to a blank screen and nothing happens.

[Midknyte]

if booting from the cd doesn't work, making the 6 boot floppies ain't gonna help.

[Strawbs]

Since you've said "I can access my drive ...", you should take the opportunity to copy your important data over to another drive before you lose that access altogether! Copy it, then virus scan the second drive in another machine.

It's really beginning to sound like a format is in order here!

[Vegetto]

Yeah this is really ticking me off and I just got my backup files from a friend then my operating system goes wack. I still didnt have a chance to burn and backup my data.

I have to try the floppy thing.

BUt i dont have 7 floppy disc and here is why I hate floppy discs

1. I have to pay 6 dollars for 10 floppy disc.
2. I can get like 100 cd-rs for like 20 dollars
thats like 20 cents per cd but for floppys its more expensive furthmore floppys are really old and can hold only 1.44mb .
ITs way ridiculous that floppy disc cost more then cds and are much worse the cds.

Its my only option here that I havent tried so I guess IM stuck paying the 7 dollars and getting ripped off.

[Vegetto]

I tried the 6 disk floppy for windows xp professional.

But when I get to the third disk it says:


File Setupdd.sys could not be loaded.
The error code is 7
Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit .

[Vegetto]

WindowsXP-KB310994-SP2-Pro-BootDisk-ENU.exe

I used this instead it ran and everything but it didnt fix or really do anything.

but after it I hard the hard drive was louder then usually for some reason.

I still want to try that single disc see what that does.


BTW how do you hook up two hard drives? I have two hard drives one is 6gb and the other is 60gb.

If I can hook up my hard drives together maybe I can get the data off one then burn and back up.

[G Ray88]

If the HD your trying to get your information off of was formatted with Win-XP in NTFS file system, you will need to connect it to a HD with the NTFS file system on it.
If you try to use Win98, it uses a FAT32 file system and it won't see the NTFS on the other drive.
Have you tried to use just one HD in your computer and see if it works? If your computer uses the newer 40-pin, 80-wire cable. The one with a blue end that connects to the MB, the gray end connects to the slave HD; the black end connects to the master HD.

Set the jumpers to cable select on the HD's.
It sounds like your boot drive may have some bad sectors on it, even if it did if you slave it to a good HD, with the same system on it you might be able to get your information transferred to the good HD. Good Luck

:eek:

[Vegetto]

Originally posted by G Ray88
If the HD your trying to get your information off of was formatted with Win-XP in NTFS file system, you will need to connect it to a HD with the NTFS file system on it.
If you try to use Win98, it uses a FAT32 file system and it won't see the NTFS on the other drive.
Have you tried to use just one HD in your computer and see if it works? If your computer uses the newer 40-pin, 80-wire cable. The one with a blue end that connects to the MB, the gray end connects to the slave HD; the black end connects to the master HD.

Set the jumpers to cable select on the HD's.
It sounds like your boot drive may have some bad sectors on it, even if it did if you slave it to a good HD, with the same system on it you might be able to get your information transferred to the good HD. Good Luck

:eek:

Thanx I got into my other hard drive and backed some files up, thanx a lot because I tried to hook up two hard drives before and it didnt work. I just didnt know the right jumper setting so thanx.

[G Ray88]

Glad to have been able to help. Good Luck:cool: :t :t