Disk crash

W

wabe

Member
Hello

Have the following problem and seeking a solution:
Have a system containing three disks and one of these has crashed. Unfortunately this is (*was*) the boot disk for the system and contained an old XP installation. About a year ago I installed two new disks and installed server 2008R2 on the first one, the second one is for pure data storage. This made the system technically a dual boot system but I quit using XP and the first disk. A couple of days ago this disk died. My problem now is:
System refuse to boot at all and it seems impossible to recover the crashed boot disk

I have disconnected this drive and try to repair the system using the OS setup DVD. It seems nothing happens however?? The system has been turned on for quite a while with the HDD-light flickering and a blank screen??

When I tried using the setup DVD with the faulty disk connected I got fairly quickly into repair mode but in this mode no OS-partition was found.

Is there anything else I can try using EasyBCD or the tools included?
 
If no OS was found by the repair CD, then the partition itself has been damaged. EasyBCD will not be of any help here.

Download a free program called testdisk and try using that. You might get lucky with it.
 
Is your OS partition marked "active" ?
If not, turn the flag on and try the repair again.
 
Terry60 said:
Is your OS partition marked "active" ?
If not, turn the flag on and try the repair again.
Click to expand...
Yes!

I've replaced the faulty drive and put a basic XP-system on it - boots fine now. I can also see the other two drives, the folders and the files. I'm now trying to follow the instructions on your wiki but it still seems like the Win 2008R2 setup disk gets stuck after the Windows logo. Is there a way to force into the recovery console?

I'm also trying to follow these instructions: How to: Install the Vista Bootloader on Windows XP | The NeoSmart Files

Have copied the boot folder from my 2008R2 installation to the windows XP installation but when I start EasyBCD I don't get any message regarding the missing bootloader and if I want it repaired (Step4)?

Also: I've run disk checks and the crucial drives are reported to be healthy
 
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Computer Guru said:
Why are you trying to install the Vista bootloader on a XP machine anyway?
Click to expand...

I'm trying to restore the entire system to the same state as before the crash. The system originally ran XP from the faulty disk. 2008R2 was later added to its own drive. This installation must have installed the boot loader since EasyBCD could be used to manage the boot process

Addendum:

I've done some progress. Managed to get into the reparation mode using the OS DVD and have executed the step descibed in "recovering the Windows Boot Loader from DVD" -Option 3 Nuclear Holocaust", twice.
First attempt I executed the commands against the working boot drive containing Win XP, the drive letters got switched in the recovery console but I figured that one out. I transfered the winload.exe file from the server 2008 installtion.

After completing this step and rebooting I got into XP again and installed EasyBCD plus added an entry for server 2008 pointing to the right disk. Tried restarting but same old win XP boot menu no sign of the real Bootmanager. EasyBCD could find the new entry though.

Next step was repeating the process "Recovering ..." but this time I pointed it toward the volume containing W2008R2. All commands succeeded and I rebooted but again was kicked into old XP. Easy BCD noticed the change but no real action - No BootManager.

I then tried changing the bootorder from the disk containing XP to the one containing W2008R2 but this just resulted in a black screen, no boot started.

What can I do??
 
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"Transferred Winload.exe " ?
Do you mean copied or moved ?
winload is the boot loader not the boot manager (bootmgr)
XP had a manager/loader (NTLDR), but in longhorn systems the functions are separated and bootmgr/BCD reside on the "system" partition (not necessarily with the OS), whereas winload is always with the OS (in x:\Windows\Sytem32\).
Put it back if you moved it.
Temporarily disconnect your XP HDD.(and any drive other than the 2k8 drive)
Set the 2k8 partition active
boot your 2k8 DVD and run "startup repair"
Do the above line three times
This should rebuild the boot files in the 2k8 partition to replace the ones from the original install which got destroyed with the crashed XP.
Continue to boot from the 2k8 HDD when you reconnect your other drives.
Add an XP entry (auto-configure) to the newly built BCD
 
Terry60 said:
"repair your computer" > "startup repair" from the booted 2k8 DVD
Click to expand...

I don't have that option. No OS is visible in the list after I disconnected the XP-drive
I can only get to command prompt and do a memory test

Came through at last! Used "Option 2" in the "Recovering the Windows Bootloader" article. Then rebooted. "Startup Repair" is available from the subdir Recovery on the setup disk and invoked with the command "Startrep". I ran this and after a while the repair was done and the system booted!
 
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Thanks for the info.
I mistakenly assumed the menu structure would be identical to Vista/7.
(don't have 2k8 !)
 
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