Most laptops do not come with a bootable XP CD so to execute such commands you have to find that CD and given many machines have RECOVERY FEATURES you can corrupt those drive by the very commands that might repair a normal PC with a retail version of Windows installed.
If you value your files you might slide in a new blank hard disk, install XP, drivers and put the old drive into an external case to start data recovery.
Sorry but I never suggest any other method today since many didn't clone or backup their files so we use the cheap method.
Bob
My laptop, running WinXP Pro SP2 and working fine for YEARS, restarted overnight but can't boot. I found a cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner of a blank screen.
Here's what I've tried in approx. order, but still won't boot:
BIOS diags report HDD is OK.
Recovery Console - CHKDSK reports C: is OK
Recovery Console - BOOTCFG /Rebuild
Recovery Console - FIXBOOT C:
Recovery Console - FIXMBR C:
After much deliberation and doing the FIXMBR, boot attempts now report Invalid Partition Table. Here's the odd thing and, I hope, a critical clue: under Recovery Console DOS, I can see all of my directories and files, despite the fact that boot sequence reports Invalid Partition Table.
One thread I read online suggested that a virus may have modified the location of the NTLDR and some other boot sector data, which may explain why FIXBOOT and FIXMBR accomplished nothing...not even a fresh Windows install would boot.
Looking for fresh ideas...
Chowhound
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GameSpot
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