Repair Xp W/o Cd am i screwed?

[NNNOOOOOO 0]

So, before school went out last school year, one of my teachers gave me a PC. I took my Win. XP CD to school and installed over his install after the HDD from mine didn't work in it. I knew I wouldn't get it home, so I took everything out abd brought those home, leaving the tower and motherboard.Well, the reason my HDD didn't work is because it has 2 OS's on it. First time I turned it on, nothing happened. The second try, Linux tried to take over, but failed.When I brought everything home, I lost the Win. XP disc. I put my HDD back into my PC, but when I try to turn it on, Nothing happened. It gave me start up beeps. Turn out it was for my 2MB video card. I removed it, turned it back on, success. Then I find out that the BIOS forgot that the HDD has two OS's on it. It tried to go strait into Windows.When it tries to go into Windows, it says it did not shut down correctly, what do I want to do? Whatever I choose, it freezes. How do I repair my Windows install, or am I going to have to reinstall everything?

[shadowx 0]

Hmm.... What version of linux is on there? I would be tempted to do one of two things...The simplest is to start windows in safe mode: Reboot the machine and when the POST/BIOS screen is gone (IE the second before the windows screen shows) press and hold F8 on the keyboard. It may well beep, just ignore it. Hopefully you will get a screen asking how you want to start windows, choose safe mode. Once in there you should be able to do a system restore etc....The second option is to fix the boot record. This wont help windows run per say but will solve the issue you have with two operating systems on the disk. It is perfectly safe to have more than one OS, all of my machines except this work one (which is pure nix) have a version of windoze and ubuntu installed on the same disc. However in your case the boot record seems to have been buggered. The boot record is in essence the contents page of the disk. It tells the rest of the hardware where each OS sites and where its bootstrap program sits.So, the easiest and safest way to fix it will be to re-install linux, google ubuntu, download the ISO and burn to a disk or usb (instructions for both are on their site) Put the disc in and if needed modify the BIOS to boot from the disc. Ubuntu will ask if you want to install or try it, choose install.You will be asked basic questions, none of them are particularly important except one. The partitions. By default ubuntu will want to use the entire disc, you need to "Specify partitions manually (Advanced" (if i remember rightly) ENSURE you tick that check box and click continue/next. This is where the magic happens, *BLEEP* this up and windows will no longer exist (which has its advantages...) If all goes well you are now presented with a lovely graphical bar of partitions. In there should be two or possibly three "EXT" partitions, possibly marked with "Linux" or whatever version of nix is on there. you need to replace ONLY these "EXT" and "SWAP" partitions. The SWAP partition will be only a couple of GB if that, the other EXT partition(s) will be several GB i expect. Select the SWAP partition, click "Delete" *please* double check you click the right partition, screw this up and windows will never work Repeat this for all other EXT type filesystems. You will then see you have "Free space" click it then click "New Partition" do NOT click "New Partition TABLE"!! You will be asked for a size, type and mountpoint. For size type in 1024 (assuming it is measured in MBs) for type select SWAP. if there is a "use this partition" option tick it and OK/Apply that. Click the free space again, New Partition, this time select "EXT 3" as the type and leave the size as it is (should be maximum, if not just type in as much free space as you have) for mount point just type "/" (slash) or choose it from the list.You should now be able to continue and ubuntu will install to those partitions. Once installed take the disc out and reboot, you should be asked which OS to boot into, select and go.NOTE: I take no responsibility for any sort of cataclysmic event involving this process, if a black hole opens and swallows the known universe its your fault not mine! Likewise if any loss of data or equipment results I take no responsibility! Changing partitions can cause loss of data if you delete the wrong thing.There

[NNNOOOOOO 0]

Actually, I never thought of that. It makes since. I also had a different idea. Since I have the HDD with a fresh install of Windows XP, I could boot to it and replace the start up files on the broken install with the fresh install.

[andresf91 0]

Sorry if I arrive a couple of days late... but I have another suggestion too.
If you already tried the solution presented by shadowx, which is very good, I hope you had luck. If you hadn't yet, you may also try with GParted.
GParted is "the Gnome Partition Editor", which allows you to graphically manage your disks partitions.
You can boot it from a CD or USB key like any live distro to manipulate your partitions in emergency cases like this. I used it once, although it wasn't to fix a partition table, just for installing Windows after having installed Debian.
Anyway, you can use GParted to "attempt data rescue from lost partitions", at least their website says. I must admit that it's not a feature of this application that I've ever used, but you can try, I don't think you may lose anything. You can check their help manual, here's the link to the section for data rescuing.

Good luck in any case!

[shadowx 0]

I dont know if Gparted will do the trick in this situation, I havent used it standalone, can it repair the MBR record?in truth I expect re-installing the GRUB boot loader would solve the problem (GRUB is the loader which gives you the "which operating system do you want to start" type thing) but the only reliable way I know of installing GRUB would be to use the Ubuntu installer, im pretty sure you can install GRUB on it's own but it seem a bit risky to me....Replacing the files also sounds like a good idea but it may not be fool proof, again with the Ubuntu CD you can use the "live" part of the CD to try ubuntu without installing, put the disc in and boot into it andf just click the "Try ubuntu without making any changes" you get the ubntu desktop without installing, from there you access the windows partitions and copy files from a USB hard drive, USB stick etc.. straight into your broken windows install.PS you say it freezes on startup, assuming you use safe mode what is the last driver entry? Is it MUP.sys? Usually if you can see the last entry in the drivers list when it freezes you can find a solution, usually by replacing that file. Worth a shot methinks!

[NNNOOOOOO 0]

Reinstalled Linux, Linux reinstalled boot loader, Windows still won't load. Now what?