Can't boot XP, any advice welcome !

PaulieBoy

Hi all,
I have a computer I was given to fix by a "friend" !!
It's a Dell Dimension 4550, running XP home, and it will not boot.
The owner does not have an XP install disk.

On booting it just goes to a blinking prompt which does nothing.
I can go into setup, it sees the HD.
F8 does nothing, F12 gives me boot options, none of which work, including the option to go into the "utility partition" on selecting that it just hangs.

I have taken the HD out and stuck it as a slave on another box and removed the data.

I've used an XP disk I own to try recovery console, I've tired everything of use within that to no avail ( chkdisk, fixmbr, etc,etc) :-(

I have the utility downloaded from Dell, but how to run it ?
It ( the computer) will not boot from USB, I could place it somewhere on the HD while having the HD as a slave on another box, would that work ? Where to put it ? Or can I put it on a bootable CD ?

Any ideas as to where to go now would be awesome :-)
Many thanks for your time.

unnameduser

Try spinrite?

gamer

go to bootdisk.com, download win98se boot file , click it to make a 3.5 boot disk ,on a blank 3.5inch bootdisk,it makes a boot disk with dos prompt and standard pc cdrom drivers ,replace old hd in the dell pc,boot from the 3.5inch disk.Insert winxp cdrom,from dos prompt browse to cdrom , d; click file to install winxp.something like win32 setup.
Google setup windows xp from dos prompt.or just set boot options in bios boot from cdrom,it sounds like theres a bad connection to hd in the pc,or else 1 or 2 ram chips is faulty ,which causes the pc to freeze, not respond to safe boot,or f8 commands.use winxp no,s on dell pc case to install xp,replace the hd ide cable in the pc.TRY a different hd to install to, i can give you a free 40gig hd if you pm me ,ide type.

watty

Not a SATA issue? Did it ever boot, or did you try a re-install? A re-install can lose the SATA driver as this is not on standard XP install CDs.

Eoinsku

have you tried Winternals ERD Commander 2005?

Download it, burn to CD, and boot from CD. You'll be taken to a windows like interface where you can try to fix your problem or reformat the hard disk.

Always works a treat for me.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/winternals.mspx

Microsoft Acquires Winternals (July 17, 2006)
Published: April 24, 2007

Winternals offerings are no longer available for purchase. However, Microsoft is exploring integrating these technologies into future offerings.
...
The Sysinternals utilities and forum can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/sysinternals.

Eoinsku please read the charter esp. the bit about software you don't own.

Eoinsku

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/winternals.mspx


Eoinsku please read the charter esp. the bit about software you don't own.

Apologies, didn't know that it had been taken over by Microsoft. I've had my version for years, and must have got it before the takeover.

Ryanzo

Could be the Disk Drive... that happened to mine a few months back

Edit: it interferes with the cpu

PaulieBoy

Hi all,
Many thanks for all your advice.
I tried hirens boot disk, and the HD is fine.
I found an old 40 gig HD laying around stuck it in and did an install on that, stuck the original HD in as a slave and all is well :-)

Again thanks for the advice, and your time.
Regards.