[thegammingperson1994]

Hey there, tgp again. This is kind of a revival of my last topic, since no one seems to be replying to it.



Anyways, it seems like now, my computer requires a flash drive to boot. Something weird had gone on with the boot sector of my previous drive, and once I downloaded these 3 necessary boot files from a boot website, it works. (Those files being ntdetect, boot.ini, and ntldr.) They just sit on the flash drive, and with it plugged in, the computer boots up fine. But that isn't fine. I don't want to have to be dependant on a flash drive for the rest of my computer to work. I tried copying those three files onto my hard drive, but that didn't seem to fix it. I seem to remember joining some allocated space, only about a couple on MB, to the main partition on the primary hard drive, so maybe that messed things up.



So could anyone tell me how I fix this?



P.S. If you are a moderator, please don't close this topic right away.

[smax013]

You should be aware that this thread may get locked as you already have a thread out there dealing with this issue. Just sayin'.



And I don't have any suggestions...other than potentially wiping the drive clean and re-installing (or restoring from a backup...you DO have a backup, right? ;) ).

[thegammingperson1994]

Well, the moderator who would be locking this topic would have to consider this first: No one is replying to the other topic. There is literally nothing I can do to get it alive again. I would be double posting, or even triple posting, which I would assume is against the rules as well. So what would I do, anyways?



And I can make a backup, sicne I can still boot into the operating system. But isn't there a simple way to repair the boot partition?

[number6]

I would just make sure that you did, in fact, place your boot files in the Windows default locations. You could also try making another partition (where ever you find the space) and assign it the same drive letter as the flash drive usually does and place the boot files there. That just popped into my head. I don't know if it would work.

[thegammingperson1994]

What do you consider the default loaction for those boot files? Renaming that drive letter does sound like a good idea, but I think this all goes down to the BIOS and the very center of how my computer reads the hard drive. I'm not sure if it really cares about the partition, or device. I think when I was messing around with partitions, that extra 3MB of disk space may have been a boot sector. Is there anyway to get it back, incase that is the problem?



Also, my computer has started to not read the flash drive until I pop it in at a certain time. That's starting to worry me.

[rgreen4]

I looked on my old HP D530 with XP Pro on it and NTLDR is not in the Windows directory. It is in fact in C:. I also have a copy in C:i386 which is the directory we used to set up for all the install cabs so we wouldn't need the CD to do a re-install. That was a common practice for those of us who used Win9x as they were not as stable as XP turned out to be. The date on the file in i386 is 2003 which dates to the original install, the date on the on in C: is 2004 which means it's the SP2 file.

Try copying the three files into C: and see if that works. If it does not, then a repair may be in order. NOT THE REPAIR CONSOLE, stay away from it. If you install the XP CD in the drive and boot, the first option is to install or repair, take the install. Later you are given the option to repair a second time, and this is an automatic repair and is the option you should take. I'm sorry I can't be more specific as to the point you get the second option, but it is after all the files are copied and it is about to do the install (which you don't want to do unless you have all your data backed up, which is a good idea anyway).

The last option is to do a full reinstall from the CD after you have backed up all of your data.

[mphenterprises]

thegammingperson1994 said:

Hey there, tgp again. This is kind of a revival of my last topic, since no one seems to be replying to it...P.S. If you are a moderator, please don't close this topic right away.

Hi TGP. Believe me, none of the Member Moderators would lock a Discussion unless necessary. Looking through the list of all of your Discussions, the closest I could find to this issue is {thread:id=46936}. If that is the Discussion to which you were referring, we can simply lock that Discussion since the vast majority of suggestions are within this Discussion. If that is not the Discussion, then it really doesn't matter.

thegammingperson1994 said:

Anyways, it seems like now, my computer requires a flash drive to boot. Something weird had gone on with the boot sector of my previous drive, and once I downloaded these 3 necessary boot files from a boot website, it works. (Those files being ntdetect, boot.ini, and ntldr.) They just sit on the flash drive, and with it plugged in, the computer boots up fine. But that isn't fine. I don't want to have to be dependant on a flash drive for the rest of my computer to work. I tried copying those three files onto my hard drive, but that didn't seem to fix it. I seem to remember joining some allocated space, only about a couple on MB, to the main partition on the primary hard drive, so maybe that messed things up.

>
>




RGreen has provided some good suggestions. I really do not have anything else to add except for what others have said (repair or reinstall).

[piyushsingh]

hi tgp
i lost track of your previous discussion as you have posted there that it has been solved . Anyways , my last post there was regarding an OS repair or reinstall. Three other posts here have mentioned the same. Well it would be better to save some headache and take the easy step of repair/reinstall.

you have two other suggestions that you may try before that.

If you have copied the three named files to proper location , it should boot fine. Once you boot with the flash drive , from the disk management make the C: partition active (if its not) , then copy the 3 files and again try to boot from the hard disk. And can you post the contents of the boot.ini here by opening it in notepad. There is a possibility that there is some mistake there.

Also what error do you get at this stage when you have copied file and try to boot ?

[thegammingperson1994]

Thank you guys for all of your replies again. That is true, I must have set the other topic to solved since my computer used to not boot at all :P I guess I should have made a new one anyways.





Ok, so yes, I do have all of those three files copied to the root directoy of my C: drive. The contents of the boot.ini are as follows:



{quote}
{noformat}


[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Windows XP" /fastdetect



{noformat}
{quote}








In the windows Disk Manager, it says that my C volume is the System volume, and when I tried to change the drive letter, it also mentioned it was the boot volume. No problem there, I guess.










Well, I suppose reinstalling is the answer. So do I boot from the cd, then choose to repair an installation, not through the console?




Does this repair mess with anything other than the windows files? I just don't want to loose my windows account. Of course, I could back it up to my TB drive, but then, I still don't want to go through the process of restoring everything. Also, what program does the best job of backing up stuff?

[mphenterprises]

Before you consider a reinstall, download and install EasyBCD. You can get it from the Neosmart Technologies website. Once installed, run the application and see if EasyBCD provides any clues to this issue. When the application opens, it will immediately open to the Overview Display Mode. If there is anything out of whack, this will catch it.

Mine looks like this: (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

[piyushsingh]

mph - easybcd doesnt work on single xp installation. See the name has BCD (boot configuration data). You can say bcd in vista is the replacement for boot.ini in xp and previous windows versions. Easy BCD wont even install on single XP install.

[piyushsingh]

You didn't mention whats the error (if any) you are getting after copying the files. The boot file looks fine for a single boot xp install. One thing may be giving a problem , the partition number. Since you are earlier coming from a dual boot , I am not sure which partition number is the XP files stored in. Check that in disk management and edit the boot file if necessary.

Well , the repair OS option is supposed to repair only the system files and the windows accounts will stay but i would say post back the error you re getting before running a repair.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Piyush. Yeah, I wasn't sure if it would provide any assistance but I threw it out there anyway. Thanks for the explanation.

[thegammingperson1994]

Thanks for all of the replies again, guys. After coyping the files to C:/, then rebooting my computer, after the BIOS runs the POST, it just sits there with a blinking cursor. Usually it would boot right into Windows after that cursor. What I've seen, though, is that I have to plug in my flash drive while it is running the POST, then it reads from the flash drive and loads from C:.

[piyushsingh]

Here is a document made by mph . Follow the 2nd method i.e Repair Drive within Windows Setup to see if it works for you.

[rgreen4]

TGP, I think you have battled this problem long enough. If this machine were mine, I would have lost patience long ago. I would say that it is time to make sure you have a good backup of all your critical data, and then try a repair. (Again, not the repair console).

If that does not work, then a full re-install is in order. It will take several hours, but at least then you'll have a fully functional machine back.

[rgreen4]

Thanks, Piyush, I forgot about MPH's document covering the repair method. I was trying to find it in my XP book while I was doing my previous post.

[thegammingperson1994]

Ok, thank you very much. So there really isn't a way to do it other than a repair install?

[piyushsingh]

rgreen4 said:

Thanks, Piyush, I forgot about MPH's document covering the repair method. I was trying to find it in my XP book while I was doing my previous post.

MPH's document link is worth bookmarking. It saves time. Many good commonly used procedures are there that would take time to write each time there. Bookmark it - http://forums.pcworl...?view=documents :D And he hasnt left any topic , so you are sure everything will be there. :D

[thegammingperson1994]

Ok, I finally did the repair install. Still didn't fix it. So now I have one partition per drive, with my main C: drive set as the boot drive. And yet, after the BIOS POST screen, it will still sit at the blinking cursor, unless I reboot my computer and plug in the flash drive at a certian time. I'm kind of leaning twoards a BIOS problem , how about you guys?