Win XP Wont Boot

[LunchBox]

Greetings Everyone,

I have a laptop with boot error

no boot partition found in hard drive

F8 does not work
I've booted with an Win XP CD and at one point it gives a BSOD (can't remember the code now)

I've had this twice before and the time it kind of freaked me out because the data was renamed to FILEXXXX.CHK.

I know I can use utilities to recover the data.

I would like to know how you would handle this type of situation.
Since I haven't dealt with something like this in a long time (really, years I've gotten lucky with no HD issues) from what I remember I would first run
Fixmbr
Fixboot
Then maybe chkdsk

Honestly my last HD I ran CHKDSK /F which renamed all files (my mistake which I got lucky since the person did not have anything important in the drive)

I have not done the recovery yet, however when I booted to "GetMyDataBack" the file structure looked with either Win7 or Vista.

The laptop has WinXP (at least the last time I saw it it was XP). I was not able to get hold of the client to verified but if it the file tree view shows it as Win7 or Vista would it be so? or Can it still be XP but the tool shows it
differently?

Thank you

 

[Fixedathome.com]

Do you have any history on the problem? Was the client having any issues before hand such as file read/write errors or Virus messages? Was the computer crashing or freezing before this problem?

I think the first thing I'd do now (after making sure I have a backup of the drive) is to run some diags on the hard drive with the drive manufacturers utility.

I'd also want to speak to the client to find out if they have run a Vista/7 upgrade at some point. In fact maybe they've tried to run one that has failed leaving the PC in this mess? I've known clients omit to tell you small bits of information like that!

 

[iptech]

F8 does not work
I've booted with an Win XP CD and at one point it gives a BSOD (can't remember the code now)

It's probably noting to do with the actual problem, but as a tech should should be taking note of any error codes that might help you (or others ) fix your computer problems.

I've had this twice before and the time it kind of freaked me out because the data was renamed to FILEXXXX.CHK.

You do know what a Check file (CHK) is and how and why it gets created, yes?

I know I can use utilities to recover the data.

I would like to know how you would handle this type of situation.
Since I haven't dealt with something like this in a long time (really, years I've gotten lucky with no HD issues) from what I remember I would first run
Fixmbr
Fixboot
Then maybe chkdsk

There is absolutely no apparently methodology as to what you are doing there. "gotten lucky" is putting it mildly, "gotten away with it" it probably more appropriate.

Honestly my last HD I ran CHKDSK /F which renamed all files (my mistake which I got lucky since the person did not have anything important in the drive)

Chkdsk will not rename all files, it only attempts to repair files ystem errors.

I have not done the recovery yet, however when I booted to "GetMyDataBack" the file structure looked with either Win7 or Vista.

What? You should have done data recovery before you started messing randomly with the hard disk & file system.

The laptop has WinXP (at least the last time I saw it it was XP). I was not able to get hold of the client to verified but if it the file tree view shows it as Win7 or Vista would it be so? or Can it still be XP but the tool shows it differently?

XP, Vista or Win 7, the chances are it will be an NTFS file system (possibly still FAT32 for XP, but rare these days). The file system is the structure on to which the operating system is laid, it is not the operating system. FWIW, XP will not have a 'users' folder in the root, Vista & Win 7 will.

If this is a paying customer's machine you really should take it to a competent technician before you do any further damage, it doesn't look like you've done any hardware diagnostics and your knowledge of operating system file structures is far too weak for you to be attempting this type of paid work.

 

[joydivision]

Test the hard drive before going any further. In fact when I get these issues doing a full hardware test is always where I start. No point on getting windows working to discover the cause was bad sectors.

 

[MobileTechie]

I have to agree with IPTech that this sort of stuff is bread and butter to the professional tech. I find it hard to believe that anyone can operate in this business and go years without encountering file system or disk issues.

But on a helpful note:

If there is no boot partition being found (and assuming you've got the BIOS actually attempting to boot to teh right disk) then it's likely that either that the boot partition is not defined (partition table and/or volume sector issues) or there is a problem with the disk meaning the relevant sectors cannot be read.

If you cannot boot to a Windows CD with a BSOD when troubleshooting this sort of problem then it's usually a 7B error in my experience, which can be relevant as it indicates problems mounting the system partition. I find when this happens, pretty much no Windows-based boot disk will complete booting but often linux ones will. Again this can be caused by the reasons above.

So after you've imaged the raw disk as a backup, you need to check the disk health and also check its partition structure. Attach the drive to a working PC and look at the disk in Drive Management and see if the system/boot partition even exist and is active etc. If not you can use tools like TestDisk or Disk Director which scan the disk for file system headers and then can recreate the table accordingly. This overwrites the MBR which might not be what you want on some makes of laptop, most famously Dell ones.

You shouldn't be afraid of using chkdsk especially if you've backed it up. What I mean is that there is little to be afraid of, and that a technician should not be afraid to use basic tools like this. If the problem is bad sectors then a chkdsk /r could solve the problem.

You don't need to be doing file-level recovery just yet until you've tried testing the disk, remapping bad sectors and attempted to reconstruct the partition structure.

 

[cdbrehm]

Looks like you have a corrupt partition table. Fixboot or fixmbr won't do anything. Chkdsk might, but be very careful. There are data recovery specialists on this forum that can give you better advise, but the general rule is don't do anything that may write any data to that hard drive, assuming the data is worth anything. Very likely you have a defective hard drive with bad sectors.

First ask the client what data is on the hard drive and how important it is. You really should be thinking about data recovery at this point and not how to repair the OS.

 

[cdbrehm]

"So after you've imaged the raw disk as a backup . . ."

In other words, MobileTechie is telling you not to perform a CHKDSK on the drive unless you have a sector-by-sector raw image of it. If you don't, I wouldn't perform a Chkdsk on that drive. Very risky.

 

[edmar]

It seems like a hard drive error. Check it first using other computer.