XP home/SuSE10 dual boot works fine until, I tried to clean viruses - possibly moved system config files. (Glare tools -system backup).

Now system does not boot up - no XP screen, just blanks out.

I have UBCD 3.3 and can try 4.x, but please point me to a help docs of various tools.

Wanted to change MBR back to XP. Did not know how.

Thanks for the help.

If you have an xp cdrom, try fixmbr or fixboot.
Or use testdisk (on UBCD).

Thanks Icecube, tried Testdisk unsuccessfully as it says unable to read master boot record.

However tested 2 hardd drives ok, used super grub to boot to linux.

Still can not boot XP (Media center edition, not home as stated earlier)

Used XP prof CD to get to recovery console - can not get to it with failed Administrator password. Tried to reset with one of UBCD tools, did not help.

A microsoft KB indicated even with right password, it may not go through if OEM used sysprep.

Called Sony and they have no clue about it and do not have ERD/Org XP Media center CD.

There may be an easier way to fix the MBR , which I am not aware of.
Tried MBR tool with no luck.

Should I be able to mount ntfs on SuSE and edit XP config files?

Appreciate your help again.



Here is my menu.lst
============================================

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Sep 18 19:34:55 UTC 2007
default
timeout 6

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader (hd0,1)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
root (hd4,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 vga=0x317 resume=/dev/hdb5 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
chainloader (fd0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
root (hd4,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd
============================================

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 784 6297448+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/hda2 * 785 2608 14651280 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 2609 19457 135339592+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2609 19457 135339561 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 10661 85626450 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdb2 10661 11706 8393931+ 83 Linux
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdb3 11706 13762 16514820 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hdb4 13763 16708 23663745 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb5 11706 11836 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb6 11837 13761 15462531 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)

have you tried DFSee 9.10? although an evalutaion version, it is fully functional and incredibly powerful at repairing these type of problems.

http://www.dfsee.com/

Normal the password is empty, unless you have changed the password of user "Administrator". At least, this is the case with Windows XP Professional.[/quote]

Try fixboot and fixmbr from the Recovery console.

Doesn't windows boot at all, or does it halt very soon in the booting process?
Press F8 to see if you can reach the Save mode part of windows, if that succeeds, your mbr is OK.

Looking to the grub menu, It seems that you have 5 hard drives. Is that correct?
Maybe the Windows entry in the grub menu is pointing to the wrong drive.

Can you give the output of fdisk -l as root user and add info about what is on each partition (SUSE, windows, data)?

Active Partition Recovery tool from UBCD fixed the corrupt MBR.

And original suspect virus is not a virus per se.

Edited boot.ini to add windows safe mode option and GRUB loader puts me into XP and safemode options.

Ran Chkdsk and it cleared several corrupt attributes and windows is booting just fine without any warnings.

Thansks for all your help.

BTW, Recovery console blank password did not work. Now I will try to see options to make his available so it comes in handy.