Re: MS Windows XP has become unbootable.

[Thomas Vaughan]

On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 06:50, Nikolay Kichukov <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> You can boot with the installation CD for windows XP.
> Then enter the recovery console and issue:
>
> fixboot (1)
>
> That should get you going.

Thanks!  That eventually worked.

The process turned out to be tricky, though, because I do not have the
Administrator password for the image that I corrupted.

And the process was made even trickier because my MS Windows XP
installation disk crashes while loading Windows when I try to boot it
on the machine with the bad MS Windows image.

In the end, I was able to boot the installation disk in VirtualBox and
install MS Windows XP onto a virtual drive under GNU/Linux. Then I
made a custom VMDK file that gave the virtual machine access to all of
the partitions on the real hard drive. Then, under GNU/Linux, I booted
the virtual machine from the installation disk and selected the
recovery option. At this point, I had two choices for logging in to MS
Windows: either the unbootable image d: (for which I don't know the
Administrator password) or the new, bootable image c: on the virtual
drive (for which I do know the Administrator password). I was able to
log into the bootable image under the recovery option. Finally, at
that point, I was able to run 'fixboot d:', which fixed the unbootable
image.

Phew! What an odyssey.

Thanks again. I'm happy that I don't have to call the IT department.

-- 
Thomas E. Vaughan