Cannot Get Recovery Console to Start - PC Reboots
Original Problem: Unmountable Boot Volume
Tried to boot off of XP cd, choose R for repair and the system then reboots and give the blue screen again.
Any ideas? I need the data off the hard drive if at all possible.
Tried to boot off of XP cd, choose R for repair and the system then reboots and give the blue screen again.
Any ideas? I need the data off the hard drive if at all possible.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Thank you. This is a laptop hard drive. So, that will be my next step - to try to set it up as a second drive. I've done this with PC hard drives but never a laptop drive. The windows install fresh option doesn't work because it saying the C drive is corrupt. It doesn't even recognize it as NTFS anymore and doesn't find an installed version of XP. So the only option is to format the partition in order to continue with the install.
If the data is vital then send it off to data recovery specialists before trying anything yourself>killing the drive more + more everytime its powered up!(if drive is failing)
Melikins,
Might I suggest you boot to the XP CD, and then Recovery console?
When you get there, can you try using fixboot, fixmbr, and then Chkdsk /p?
Here's some basic info on how to get to the recovery console and how to use it to see if you can repair or recover your boot sector and master boot record.
Use Recovery Console
When a Windows XP boot problem is severe, you'll need to use a more drastic approach. The Windows XP CD is bootable and will provide you with access to a tool called Recovery Console.
To boot from the Windows XP CD, insert it into the CD-ROM drive on the problem system and press [Ctrl][Alt][Delete] to reboot the computer. Once the system begins booting from the CD, simply follow the prompts that will allow the loading of the basic files needed to run Setup. When you see the Welcome To Setup screen Press R to start the recovery console.
You'll then see a Recovery Console menu. It displays the folder containing the operating system's files and prompts you to choose the operating system you want to log on to. Just press the menu number on the keyboard, and you'll be prompted to enter the Administrator's password. You'll then find yourself at the main Recovery Console prompt.
From there you should be able to run the fixboot command:
Fix a corrupt partition boot sector
The partition boot sector is a small section of the hard disk partition that contains information about the operating system's file system (NTFS or FAT32), as well as a very small machine language program that is crucial in assisting the operating system as it loads.
To use the Fixboot tool, from the Recovery Console command prompt, type
Fixboot [drive]:
Where [drive] is the letter of the drive to which you want to write a new partition boot sector.
Then use Fixmbr:
Fix a corrupt master boot record
The master boot record occupies the first sector on the hard disk and is responsible for initiating the Windows boot procedure. The master boot record contains the partition table for the disk as well as a small program called the master boot code, which is responsible for locating the active, or bootable, partition, in the partition table. Once this occurs, the partition boot sector takes over and begins loading Windows. If the master boot record is corrupt, the partition boot sector can't do its job and Windows won't boot.
To use the Fixmbr tool, from the Recovery Console command prompt, type
Fixmbr [device_name]
Where [device_name] is the device pathname of the drive to which you want to write a new master boot record. For example, the device pathname format for a standard bootable drive C configuration would look like this:
\Device\HardDisk0
Then run chkdsk:
In the recovery console type chkdsk /p to check to see if the disk drive is bad or marked as dirty.
If after performing this check it is unable to locating anything wrong with the hard disk drive, reboot the computer.
If after performing this step the computer still has the same issue, reboot the computer and load back into the recovery console.
Once back into the recovery console type chkdsk /r to locate any bad sectors and recover any data.
Once completed reboot the computer to determine if this has resolve your issue.
(Info can be found here:)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6031733.html
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000630.htm
Let us know how that goes....
Might I suggest you boot to the XP CD, and then Recovery console?
When you get there, can you try using fixboot, fixmbr, and then Chkdsk /p?
Here's some basic info on how to get to the recovery console and how to use it to see if you can repair or recover your boot sector and master boot record.
Use Recovery Console
When a Windows XP boot problem is severe, you'll need to use a more drastic approach. The Windows XP CD is bootable and will provide you with access to a tool called Recovery Console.
To boot from the Windows XP CD, insert it into the CD-ROM drive on the problem system and press [Ctrl][Alt][Delete] to reboot the computer. Once the system begins booting from the CD, simply follow the prompts that will allow the loading of the basic files needed to run Setup. When you see the Welcome To Setup screen Press R to start the recovery console.
You'll then see a Recovery Console menu. It displays the folder containing the operating system's files and prompts you to choose the operating system you want to log on to. Just press the menu number on the keyboard, and you'll be prompted to enter the Administrator's password. You'll then find yourself at the main Recovery Console prompt.
From there you should be able to run the fixboot command:
Fix a corrupt partition boot sector
The partition boot sector is a small section of the hard disk partition that contains information about the operating system's file system (NTFS or FAT32), as well as a very small machine language program that is crucial in assisting the operating system as it loads.
To use the Fixboot tool, from the Recovery Console command prompt, type
Fixboot [drive]:
Where [drive] is the letter of the drive to which you want to write a new partition boot sector.
Then use Fixmbr:
Fix a corrupt master boot record
The master boot record occupies the first sector on the hard disk and is responsible for initiating the Windows boot procedure. The master boot record contains the partition table for the disk as well as a small program called the master boot code, which is responsible for locating the active, or bootable, partition, in the partition table. Once this occurs, the partition boot sector takes over and begins loading Windows. If the master boot record is corrupt, the partition boot sector can't do its job and Windows won't boot.
To use the Fixmbr tool, from the Recovery Console command prompt, type
Fixmbr [device_name]
Where [device_name] is the device pathname of the drive to which you want to write a new master boot record. For example, the device pathname format for a standard bootable drive C configuration would look like this:
\Device\HardDisk0
Then run chkdsk:
In the recovery console type chkdsk /p to check to see if the disk drive is bad or marked as dirty.
If after performing this check it is unable to locating anything wrong with the hard disk drive, reboot the computer.
If after performing this step the computer still has the same issue, reboot the computer and load back into the recovery console.
Once back into the recovery console type chkdsk /r to locate any bad sectors and recover any data.
Once completed reboot the computer to determine if this has resolve your issue.
(Info can be found here:)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6031733.html
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000630.htm
Let us know how that goes....
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Thank you everyone for your help.
So what was the answer to your problems? Just curious so that possibly someone with similar or the same problems could be helped by this! Thanks!
That way you can pull off the data and still retain the OS so that you can come back and tacle the issue. It sounds more like a hardware failure, most probably your HDD.
Good Luck!