Troubleshooting Windows XP Fails to Start (Continued)

5. Repairing the Damaged Boot.ini With the Windows XP operating system loading, the Ntldr program points to the Boot.ini file to determine the location of the operating system files, and Which startup option to choose. So if there is a problem with the Boot.ini file, the Windows XP system will not start. Learning Computer Repair

You can use the Recovery Console special version of the Bootcfg tool to fix it. Of course, you must first reboot the system with the Windows XP CD and open the Recovery Console as described in #4. You can call the Bootcfg tool like this: At the Recovery Console command prompt, type Bootcfg /parameter where /parameter is one of these required parameters: U disk failure /Add: Scan all Windows installations to help you to Boot.ini Add any new content to the file. CPU Repair /Scan: Search all Windows installations. /List: Lists all entries for the Boot.ini file. /Default: Sets the default operating system as the primary boot entry. /Rebuild: Completely re-create the Boot.ini file. The user must confirm each step. /Redirect: Allows the operating system to redefine to a specific port when using the Headless Administration feature. Redefinition consists of two parameters: [Port Baudrate] [UseBiosSettings]. /Disableredirect: Disable redirection. 6. Repairing the damaged partition boot record The partition boot sector is a small part of the hard disk partition that contains information about the file system in the operating system and a small machine language program that is critical to helping the operating system boot. of. If you suspect that the startup problem with Windows XP is caused by the partition boot sector being corrupted, you can fix it using a tool called Fixboot in the Recovery Console. First, start the system with the Windows XP CD and open the Recovery Console as described in #4. You can call the Fixboot tool like this: At the Recovery Console command prompt, type Fixboot [drive]: [drive] represents the partition where you want the newly created partition boot sector to be located. 7. Repair the damaged primary boot sector The primary boot sector occupies the first sector of the hard disk and is responsible for the Window boot process. The primary boot sector contains the disk partition table and a small program called the master boot code, which is responsible for locating activity 0, bootable disk, and partition in the partition table. Once it is destroyed, the partition boot sector will take over and start loading Windows. If the main boot sector is corrupted, the partition boot sector will not be able to do this and Windows will not be able to boot. If you suspect that the Windows XP system boot problem is caused by the main boot sector being corrupted, you can fix it using the Fixmbr tool in the Recovery Console. First, start the system with the Windows XP CD and open the Recovery Console as described in #4. You can call the Fixmbr tool like this: At the Recovery Console command prompt, type Fixmbr [device_name]:[device_name] is the pathname of the device where you want the new primary boot sector. For example, the device path name is formatted according to the standard bootable drive C drive: \\Device\\HardDisk0. 8. Disable automatic restart If Windows XP encounters a fatal error, the default setting for handling this error is to automatically restart the system. If the error is generated during the Windows XP boot process, the operating system will fall into the infinite loop of restart —— iteratively restarts and cannot be restored. In this case, you need to disable the auto restart feature. To do this, when Windows XP starts up, when you see “Please select the operating system to start”, or after you hear a beep, press [F8] to open the Windows Advanced Options menu. Then, select to disable automatic restart in the event of a system failure, then press [Enter]. Now Windows XP will hang when it encounters a problem, it will give a stop message that you can use to diagnose the problem. 9. Restoring Backups If you can't fix a Windows XP system with a boot failure, but have a recent backup, you can restore the system from the backup media. The method used to recover your system depends on the backup tool you use, so you need to restore the system according to the instructions of the backup tool. 10. Perform an in-place upgrade If you can't fix a Windows XP system with boot problems and haven't backed up recently, you can do an in-place upgrade. Reinstalling the operating system in the same folder is like upgrading from one Windows version to another. In-place upgrades can solve at most most of the problems if they don't solve all Windows startup problems. Here's how: Insert the Windows XP CD into your drive and restart your system from the CD. After the initial preparation is complete, you will see the Windows XP installation screen. Press [Enter] to enter the Windows XP installer. Soon, you will see the license agreement page, then you need to press [F8] to confirm that you agree to the agreement. The installer then searches the hard drive for the previously installed Windows XP. When it finds the previously installed Windows XP, you will see a second Windows XP installation interface appearing on the screen. The interface will prompt you to press R to repair, or you can press [Esc] to reinstall a Windows XP. In this case, repairing the system is the same as doing an in-place upgrade, so you can fix it by simply pressing the R key. After you have chosen it, the installer will check the disk where the system is located and then start an in-place upgrade. After an in-place upgrade or repair system, you must reinstall all Windows updates.