I have an HP nx7400 XP Professional notebook that won't boot. Normally I'd just reload it but there is an application installed that will be almost impossible to get back.
XP comes up to the HP wallpaper before login and goes no further. CTL-ALT-Delete doesn't do anything. When I boot in safemood, the computer just reboots to the F8 window. No form of Safe Mode is working. I have scanned for viruses and spyware using the XP Universal Boot CD and I have taken the disk out of the laptop, installed it in a desktop and run malware bytes. I found one file ic:\windows\system32\login
I am considering trying to treat this as though the registry is corrupted; Copy over the original system registry files (I think there are 5) and then do a System Restore once XP is running again. Any suggestions on other alternatives?
I've tried using an XP CD to start the Recovery Console but that didn't work since the XP CD didn't recognize the nx7400 disk controller. Is there a way I can get this beast into recovery console easily?
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You will need to download the DOS drivers form HP website, unpack them on a floppy disk and reboot with the windows CD, then Press F6 when to load the 3rd party drivers (it will say Press F6 down at the screen on the blue setup screen).
This seems to be the driver you will need: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/
Hi,
You could feed it the sata driver using F6 and go to console, but somehow I don't think you have a floppy drive :)
Why don't you take out the hard drive and connect it to a desktop computer and get your data or run checkdisk on it? Your notebook should have a sata drive that is compatible with desktop computers, you just plug it in.
Also you can try to boot from a livecd like BartPE, but I think the easyest way is to yank the hard drive out and stick it in another computer.
You could put the disk back in the desktop and copy a registry backup.
make a backup of these on the laptop HD:
\windows\system32\config\S
\windows\system32\config\S
\windows\system32\config\S
\windows\system32\config\D
\windows\system32\config\S
Then copy the files from a restore point. The files would be under \system volume information and then _restore{blah,blah,blah} and then RP folders then snapshot. Sort by date and pick one that goes back far enough. One folder on my machine looks like this:
C:\System Volume Information\_restore{B3768
You would copy
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to \windows\system32\config\S
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to \windows\system32\config\S
_REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to \windows\system32\config\D
To access "\system volume information" you need to have folder views set to show hidden and system files and then remove read only attributes from the folder.
If none of those restore points works you could try to copy the base registry files in place. Copy the 5 files from \windows\repair to \windows\system32\config - The downside to this is none of your programs will have registry entries.
Thanks for your quick repsonses:
HainKurt - Great suggestion but I can't get this laptop to boot to a recovery console or SafeMode with DOS prompot.
efusion - I'm afraid this might be my only option. It's not pretty but HP doesn't seem to give me the ability to do a recovery console load any other way.
aliqiqi - I did take out the hard drive as you suggested to run the Malwarebytes scan. The computer that I put it in didn't pick up any other problems. Would checkdisk do anything else for me? I did try using a BartPE like disk in the Univeral Boot CD. ( I guess BartPE is the proper name for it).
mikelfritz - thanks. that's a good idea. your approach would get me around the recovery console issue. Do you think this would work? I could also backup the original files if I ever wanted to restore it to the condition it was in. Just out of curiousity does this sound like a windows registry issue to you???
I think the easiest way is for you to download and create a ubcdwin cd. This will allow you to boot into a windows interface and do a system restore function.
http://ubcd4win.com/
check all these tools
http://nu2.nu/pebuild
http://
I have helped to fix such problem before for a friend of mine.
You need to press F10 when the laptop start and go to the BIOS.
In this BIOS, there is a setting telling whether your disc controller is in normal mode and ahci mode. I do not remember which mode is correct, but as there is only two options. Change the option to another value. Press F10 to save and exit the BIOS.
You should be able to enter "System Recovery Console" after making the above change in BIOS.
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by: HainKurtPosted on 2009-10-19 at 10:50:27ID: 25607356
if you can boot it somehow, run this
sfc /scannow
to recover system files...
http://support.microsoft.c