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General discussion

REINSTALLING FROM WINDOWS XP BOOT DISK WITH MEGA PROBLEMS

by infinet2000 May 28, 2005 6:50AM PDT

I have already spent days trying get a successful reinstalling Windows XP from the six boot disks downloaded from MS site.

The error message I get is NTLDR is missing. Someone please help me to get pass this so I can at least get Windows to boot.

I have one hard drive partitioned into a C and D drive. The C drive is where my operating system is located. The D drive contains all my data files.

To make matters worse, I changed the format from NTSF to FAT32 for the operating system by accident. I want to convert back to NTSF, but can't even get to a proper DOS prompt.

I'm a Cisco instructor, but I'm no expert when it comes to fixing this problem. I would appreciate if anyone out there can help me before I have to go to the last resort of taking my system to Bestbuy's technical service.

This is a system that I put together three years ago. Apparently my son did something to it and it no longer recognizes windows and just hangs.

I tried working with a tech at the college I used to work at, but it's still not working.

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME. Unfortunately I need those data files in my D partition. Otherwise I would just reformat the entire hard drive and start from scratch.

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

infinet2000

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

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A few things.

by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator May 28, 2005 7:07AM PDT

1. Look up on these forums how people use a KNOPPIX CD to save their files.

2. Why are you using the 6 boot disks?

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Most machines can be set to boot...

by Michael Geist May 28, 2005 8:53AM PDT

from the XP cd. Set the bios to boot to the CDROM first and try a Repair install of XP>>>

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

Note the need for a good backup plan off the hard drive for those needed files.

Another option, other then Knoppix, is to set the hard drive into a working XP machine as a second drive. Files on the drive should be seen and accessible for copying to the host drive.

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