Used EasyBCD on XP... still hurts

G

gidom

Member
I installed XP and then later Ubuntu. I didn't like the Grub screen at the begining and decided to install EasyBCD... Bad idea as it is made for Vista. Well, I still feel the pain... I kind of messed up everything, especially after I used the "restore" option from EasyBCD and deleted the ubuntu partition .
Anyway now I am clean again, there is no more traces of Ubuntu (had to use a debian distribution package including ms-sys to fix the mbr). But I still I have a problem. When I boot it tells me that winload.exe is missing or corrupt. But winload is Vista while my system is completly XP! I guess I used a restoring function of EasyBCD that tricked my computer into thinking it's vista installed...
It then brings me to a Windows Boot Manager which gives me only one choice "Windows XP Professional SP 3", which is the label I happened to give to my OS when I used EasyBCD. If I validate, I go back to the first error message of the corrupt winload.exe
I tried my installation XP CD to repair but I end up with another error message when it installs (after all the drivers) "A problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer...".
So I cannot access XP at all. I already looked into http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Troubleshooting+Windows+XP
My boot.ini is clean (it actualy did not change for the past 3 months), it points to the right partition, I have ntdetect and ntldr on my drive. None of these has been modified lately. Of course, I do not have a console installed...
The only thing that I can use is an ubuntu live CD that lets me look into and modify these files. Any idea of what I can do to restore my system?
Thanks
 
Hi Gidom, welcome to NST.
It sounds like you've still got a Vista IPL in the MBR. (See here if that's a load of meaningless acronyms).
You should be able to use the "uninstall Vista bootloader" option in EasyBCD, which is designed to reinstate the XP boot process for those users who are downgrading from Vista.
 
Almost

Thanks Terry60. I will for sure look into this article.
Is there a way to uninstall easybcd without booting to windows (as I mentionned, I cannot access to windows). Otherwise how do you start Easybcd if you cannot access to XP at all. Is there a way to install easybcd on a bootable XP CD (WinPE)?
Thanks
 
Why not jsut use the XP CD and go into the Recovery Console and do a fixboot and fixmbr?

That would have easily have given you the XP boot menu back without having to do a repair isntall and all that. But since you ahve already started the repair you have to finish it or reinstall. Windows is fully corrupt now.
 
As I already mentionned "I tried my installation XP CD to repair but I end up with another error message when it installs (after all the drivers) "A problem has been detected and windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer..."."

So there is no way for me to access the recovery console. It is the very first thing I tried to do.
 
So it gives you the BSOD before you get any menu? Sorry your wording is a bit difficult to understand exactly what you mean by after all the drivers. Cause there are 2 times when drivers are loaded.
 
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