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Changing back to Active partition

  • 16-11-2005 1:07am
    #1
    hagi_complex
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12 ✭


    Hi folks

    I'm hoping somebody might be able to help me here. I thought I had a reasonable grasp of the concepts involved, but the following episode has shown me up for the complete novice that I am. So, it's like this (bear with me)......

    I bought a PC with Windows XP Home Edition pre-installed from Time a few years ago - I got no system restore discs or anything like that with it and at the time of buying, I never thought that I'd need them.

    I got a few good years service out of it but recently bought a new laptop and my intention was to give the PC to my niece. It's still a reasonable spec (AMD 2.4 GHz; 512k RAM) and will do a job for her. As it was my first PC, I was downloading all manner of programmes and tools, as well as installing all sorts of programmes from magazine-cover CDs, so there was all kinds of junk on it.

    On top of this, there was a trojan that I couldn't get rid of with any of the utilities that I tried, so (in my ignorance/innocence) I decided to partition the hard disc into 3 different sections (Encarta was on one) with the intention of installing a new o/s on to one of the partitions and then deleting/formatting the partition that I assumed contained the trojan. My intention was to use my sister's XP CD that she got with her Dell to do this.

    So, in my wisdom, I changed the active partition to the blank one and tried to install my sister's copy of XP..... which didn't work. As a result, I now have a PC gathering dust, with a fully legit copy of XP on a partition that I cannot access. I tried booting to a floppy, CD and DVD AND messing around with the BIOS (probably shouldn't have done this, but then again, I probably shouldn't have done ANY of this messing!), but I get nowhere. Every time I go back for another try, this damn machine seems to be mocking me more and more.

    Ideally, I'd just like to get back to the active partition to allow me to boot XP. In a worst case scenario, I'd wipe the whole disk and start from scratch, but I don't want to have to buy another copy of a Windows O/S cos I've just shelled out a fortune on my own new set-up.

    Can anyone give me any advice on what to do here? Or is this PC doomed for ever more unless I throw money at it?

    Many thanks!


Comments

  • #2
    MrPinK
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,502 ✭✭✭MrPinK


    SystemRescueCD

    It's a small bootable CD image which you download and burn. It contains a whole host of tools designed for recovering your system, including QtParted. This will let you change the active partition, or edit your partitions any other way you want.


  • #3
    hagi_complex
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12 ✭hagi_complex


    You sir, are a gentleman. Thanks for the very quick reply. I'll try it tomorrow and let you know how I get on. Many thanks again.


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