In boot loop - tried bunch - what to do now

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Turtlecurls
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Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:04 pm

In boot loop - tried bunch - what to do now

#1 Post by Turtlecurls » Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:28 pm

With a power glitch, my mother's desktop shutdown & since has been in endless power up loop. I'm leaving tomorrow & have to fix this today.

What's the likely cause? Should I just go out & buy another HD & start from scratch (slave the old one to get data)? Or is this fixable? Is the hard drive bad & that's that?

I have software on CD to create another partition. No idea if there's room. But can I install to it from recovery CDs HP has you make when you get the computer? Is there an option to pick what partition?


From recovery console I've tried:

Fixboot on C & H
Bootcfg /scan - can't find anything due to disk errors
Repair of Windows stops at 88% with "error copying file."
Chkdsk C is fine.
Chkdsk H gives "unrecoverable errors" message.
Map command shows C much smaller than H.
Dir C is fine
Dir H gives a few file lines with smiley & odd characters for names.
Fixmbr didn't try on either C or H. Reports "unusual configuration, may lose access" (paraphrased) so I didn't try it.
I had installed more memory a week before. But removing didn't fix.
Bios shows everything looks fine.
When I go out, I'll get another cable to try too.


After running fixboot, it now shows NTLTR is missing error for first time.

Computer
HP a1220n - couple years old
1 harddrive
Windows XP, SP2


Help, any help will be appreciated!

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