XP bootup probs

[creep]

Ok, here's what happened... i was editing wave files in Sound forge and out of nowhere XP reboots on it's own.

From there, I'm unable to load up windows...

It'll stop to check the disks, scan them and then, I get the Blue Screen with a bunch of gibberish...

"Bad_CONFIG_INFO"

I disabled the system restore so that rules that solution.

I can't even run safe mode or anything.

Please help, I need to recover some important files from that.

I also tried the XP startup disk so that i can reinstall XP but it didnt work.

 

[Qumahlin]

you need to try booting from the XP cd, and going into the recovery console. once in the recovery console, you can try to do a fixboot, fixMBR, and a chkdsk and see if that helps or sometimes it can auto find the problem

 

[Electronic Punk]

Need someone with knowledge of the recovery console to write a quick guide, it seems very lame and useless to me! Those 3 commands may help tho!

 

[creep]

so when it goes into the command prompt in the recovery console, try those ?

i tried chkdsk and it said everything was fine.. but ill try the other 2

 

[phishhead]

is the cmd fdisk/mbr or is it different in xp.....also if you can get to the cmd prompt why not just copy your files over and just trash the os. and reinstall

 

[UniSol]

Use a win98 bootdisk

run <a> fdisk /mbr

then <cd> i386/winnt.exe

It should fix the boot files just from running part of the setup....

 

[creep]

fixboot created a new boot sector and when i rebooted, the same thing happened... blue screen

fixMBR created a new master boot record i think and when i rebooted, same thing...

also if you can get to the cmd prompt why not just copy your files over and just trash the os. and reinstall

copy to where? floppy disks?

Unisol - can you explain that one more time? what's the / for

 

[creep]

*BUMP

 

[creep]

uhh help?

 

[Lonman]

Here's a couple articles about using XP's recovery console:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307654#9 << You don't have to install it... it can be run from the CD.

This one gives a more detailed description of the available commands:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q229716

 

[creep]

ugh, so far i still can't fix the problem

any other options?

 

[creep]

there has to be something i can do OTHER THAN formatting or deleting the c:\ partition

 

[Lonman]

I don't know what is wrong with your system and I don't know how to help you get it fixed. I can only offer you my setup as an example for future reference. I have my drive partitioned in 3 partitions. My main boot (C:\) partition is 2gig, fat32, and I've installed Win2k on it (this is my 'safety net' OS in case I hose my XP, NTFS, partition). My D: partition is 20gig, ntfs... this is my XP installation and where I install all my programs. My E: partition is 20+gig, fat32, and is used for storage. The only reason i'm even replying here is to let you know you're not alone. I've messed up my machine bad enough on several occassions and lost everything... it sucks. On one occasion, to rescue valuable data, I made an image of the defunct partition and stored it on another partition - I then formatted and reinstalled my OS - I then put the image back onto a different partition, rescued my data and formatted that partition.

If you're unable to do a repair installation, then I don't know what else to suggest except to image or backup the bad partition for later data retrieval and do a clean installation. I wish i could have offered more help.