For some reason, my hard drive is not booting Win XP after the bios screen. Here's what happened: After a normal computing session, I shut down the computer, but explorer would not end itself. I clicked "End now" and it quit with everything gone except the background and mouse (keyboard not responding). After trying key combinations, I finally just shut the computer off. Next time I start it up, it goes past the bios like normal and then just sits there at a blank screen (with blinking cursor at the top left). I have tried restarting and entering safe mode by pressing F8, but it does not respond (ie. does the same thing, except beeps like crazy when I press F8 too much). I can access the bios setup OK, but I can't see any problems there. I tried booting from the Windows XP setup CD to run repair. After pressing "r" to go to the repair mode, it loads the next screen asking if c:\windows is the correct drive. Click enter, and the system restarts. Then, I'm back where I started (taking the CD out before booting reverts to the original problem, and letting it boot just goes back to setup). I do not have a floppy installed, so I'd like to avoid the hassle of adding one from another computer in the house. I tried creating a bootable CD in Nero, but it's giving me an error (in creating the ISO) so I thought I'd ask if theres anything else I can try. What other ways might I create a bootable CD? Does anyone know what exactly is wrong? I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that Windows didn't shut down properly the last time (not hardware related). Thanks.

>I tried booting from the Windows XP setup CD to run repair. After pressing "r" to go to the repair mode, it loads the next screen asking if c:\windows is the correct drive. Click enter, and the system restarts. ============ I believe your problem with using the Recovery Console stems from the following: When prompted with C:\Windows is the correct drive----- DON'T hit Enter. Enter is the command for a re-boot. Instead, type the numeral 1, this designates the C:partition. Then you can try the various Recovery Console repair commands. I suggest you try the fixboot command, this will write a new master boot record as you may not need to run a complete repair of XP. sLLs

Thanks, LL--I realized that mistake right after I posted the message. Unfortunately, the fixboot command didn't have any effect. The same thing still happens. Which other commands should I try? Thanks.

I was thinking of trying the command FIXMBR, but I'm worried about the warning it gives. The computer has a 200GB Seagate drive, which isn't fully recognized by the motherboard (I had to use Seagate's install to use the full capacity). Running FIXMBR gives the warning that I do not have a normal boot record... will executing this make me unable to access my entire partition?

Here is the warning I receive: "If an invalid or nonstandard partition table signature is detected, you will be prompted whether you want to continue. If you are not having problems accessing your drives, you should not continue. Writing a new master boot record to your system partition could damage your partition tables and cause your partitions to become inaccessible." The drive works fine in the recovery mode (for browsing/read/write/etc). Should I use FIXMBR? What are my alternatives? Thanks.

I would think the fixmbr command is safe to use. However, first try CHKDSK C: /F *space after K, space after C:* This switch will hopefully find any errors on the drive and repair them. If all else fails, you'll probably have to do full repair installation. Be sure to visit Windows Updates after any and all of the above. sLLs

How to do a system repair.--Boot from the xp cd and go past the recovery console to the install menu. Select repair the existing installation. You won't lose any data except the xp updates. Unless you have a slipstream sp1 cd you will have to d/l sp1 and all subsequent updates. Be sure the firewall and A/V is active before going online as you will be susceptible to sasser and msblaster. If you don't want SP2 go to autopatcher.com and d/l SP1 and subsequent updates. Please post back within 24 hours or I will delete the post from my follow up list. Thanks.