Tried a lot of suggestions posted in this forum but still nothing worx! 1. blue screen of death "unmountable boot volume" 2. downloaded WinXP_EN_HOM_BF.EXE, put it on 6 disks, didn't work 3. deleted files from 1st disk (suggested by someone), put back on 3 files: ntdetect.com, setupldr.bin and created boot.ini, does not work - it says hal.dll is corrupt - please reinstall this file, how do i do that when the damn thing does not even boot properly ?! 4. tried win 98 boot disk - it worx, it recognises cdrom - put in official oem install disk - error: "internal setup error, cannot create swap file" 5. beginning to think that hard drive is full or so, ran readntfs - could see all files, but doesn't seem to be gettin on the hard disk to run, edit or delete some files there 6. PLEASE HELP !

Are u attempting an upgrade, repair or fresh install of XP ?? Do u need to save files currently on the HD ?? Is ur drive already partitioned into two or more drives ??

Hi Keith thanks for your reply, i try to do a repair, i'd love to keep a lot of the files on my hd (a lot of wotk is on there, no backup yet) I have one drive Jbx

I was hoping u wasn't going to say that lol !! OK, well if the HD is full, u will need to delete some files to make room for the install. Ntfsdos will only mount/read ur drive, u need ntfsdosPro to actually do anything with it. Another alternative (which works VERY well) is ERD Commander (bootable CD) which amazingly takes u into a real desktop environment, where u can easily read/delete files via its own explorer. I think u will need to get one of these progs before u can proceed any further if u want to save any files :(

If u have another PC u can use, then simply slave the drive in that and save the files to that machines HD. Then u can do a much better job by starting afresh - partitioning/formatting/re-installing in ur original machine. You can always write the saved files to cdr or slave it again copy back !! Hope this helps.