Partition Magic, Boot Magic: XP won't start! - Page 2

meld51 · 23-02-2004, 21:51

Hello all,
I put the XP disk in and got to the consoloe, but the first thing it asked me for was the administrators password. That's my accountg, but it would not accept it. Is there some other password that I should be using?

jellybaby · 23-02-2004, 21:53

It should be the password u set up the when XP was installed, if you didn't enter a password, then just press enter when asked for one

meld51 · 23-02-2004, 21:57

Thanks J,

Here we go again...

rdhw · 24-02-2004, 09:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sociable

With luck you should still be able to boot to safe mode and undo the boot magic stuff from there I think.

Afraid not! Boot Magic works by replacing the MBR with its own, and does all its work before any part of any operating system loads. So you can't affect Boot Magic by tweaking any operating system settings.

Boot Magic will not install on an NTFS file system, which might be what your XP system has. If it has installed at all, it will have found itself a FAT partition to install itself on. You need to make sure that FAT partition is still available and unhidden. If that FAT partition is a data partition, you will get a black screen after selecting it from Boot Magic.

If Boot Magic will not load at all, then one reason might be that the partition that it installed itself to is no longer available at boot time.

SMHarman · 24-02-2004, 10:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by meld51

Another thing: is there a way of copying all my important files to my external USB disK? Is there a way I can get USB limping along? If I could back up my data files I'd feel a lot happier about messing around....

As you are reinstalling the OS, not formatting the HDD, your files should not become damaged as a result of playing with the OS.

Stuartbe · 24-02-2004, 12:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

As you are reinstalling the OS, not formatting the HDD, your files should not become damaged as a result of playing with the OS.

What about the registry and the shortcuts...

Can you get hold of an XP disk ? You can then boot the system from the xp cd and run system rescue... This will repair the install for you...

SMHarman · 24-02-2004, 12:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuartbe

What about the registry and the shortcuts...

Can you get hold of an XP disk ? You can then boot the system from the xp cd and run system rescue... This will repair the install for you...

True, but the data files themselves should remain intact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by meld51

If I could back up my data files I'd feel a lot happier about messing around....

Putting meld51 at rest that after reinstalling the OS he should then be able to see the files, even if installs of the apps to run them on subsequently need to be performed.

Fixing the problem and the MBR would be the optimal solution though.

I again realise why I am hesitant to do anything to reclaim the unpartitioned 10Gb on my HDDs

meld51 · 24-02-2004, 21:08

Hello All
Just one last thing.....I got as far as getting to the console and fixmbr. I gives you a warning that I have a non standard mbr and if I press proceed then I may make my partitions inaccessible.

Just before I press the button.....has anyone any reservations?

Sorry I'm such a wimp!!

snuffs99 · 24-02-2004, 23:44

Try this m8 it does work, or at least it did for me.

http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/0..._boot_toot.htm

Hope it helps.

Re:

Snuffs

meld51 · 25-02-2004, 22:33

Thanks folks : problem solved!!

aliferste · 25-02-2004, 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by meld51

Thanks folks : problem solved!!

Id like to hear how?

meld51 · 26-02-2004, 17:56

Well it's fixed but I don't understand why! Here Is what I did and what happened.

I just could not bring myself to do a fixmbr except as a very last resort.
I thought I could re install XP as a second to last resort and put up with some of my applications not working too well. I suppose I would have to reinstall some of them as well.
However, since it was easy to do I thought that first I would swap my HD around physically so that my Win 98 HD was in IDE0 and my XP HD was in IDE1. I thought I could then boot from win 98 and then use it to back up my data onto an external disk. (wasn't sure about this but what could I lose?)
I swapped them and sure enough I could get Win 98 to boot.
After it had searched around for all the drivers it asks you to reboot, and guess what, when it restarted it started in XP!
I quickly took the opportunity to backup all my data.
Next I did a system restore to the point before I installed Boot Magic and Partition Magic.
After that I formatted my Win 98 disk to be sure of having 1 OS only (for now).
Then I ran a checkdisk to make sure that there were no errors: there were none!
I checked the BIOS to ensure that it was seeing the HDs correctly and it was.

So that's it. Fixed but I don't know why.

If anyone else knows the logic then let me know!

Actually I'm surprised to find that the IDE designation seems to move with the HDD. My BIOS still sees it as having the OS in IDE0?

Anyway thanks for all your time and attention. It really helps to chew the fat when these things happen!

Pyromanic · 08-03-2004, 19:51

Is it easy to make a cd bootable ? My xp disk doesnt boot like that

Stuartbe · 08-03-2004, 19:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pyromanic

Is it easy to make a cd bootable ?

If you have Nero...

Get a bootable floppy disk or make one. Select bootable cd from the list. Select the A drive and nero will copy the startup files. Make sure you edit the autoexec.bat ect before this point.

Copy the files you want onto the cd and burn....

Thats it !

Pyromanic · 08-03-2004, 19:56

great, thanks. sounds simple