wtf win xp wont boot

[Computer Head]

I think the installation just went corrupt. You might have a bad msdos.sys or io.sys file. I would just reinstall Windows XP. Obviously something is either missing or doesn't work anymore, so the system files need to be overwritten. One word of caution though, you might have to reinstall some other OSs once those system files get rewritten, because some of the files are shared by multiple OSes. For example, I just installed Windows 2000 Server on my laptop, which already had Windows XP on it, just to find out that now I can't boot into Windows XP, and the only way to remedy that problem is to reinstall Windows XP. I wouldn't sweat it though, I doubt OSX will be affected, because that is an entirely new shell. Don't worry about that, I think that you will have at least one other OS that works, I kinda have doubts about Vista, but at least OS X should work. I would be shocked if that didn't work.

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

well while i was on vacation, my dad tried going on my comp, and as computer illiterate as he is, i had to lead him through all the boot menues through the phone, and he said there was a black screen when he tried xp. so i told him to go on vista. i was gunna reformat xp this weekend anyway but i was gunna backup everything first

 

[Computer Head]

You can still access like the My Documents and the desktop folders through Vista by the Documents and Settings folder on the C: root drive. Just select the user your computer uses for Windows XP and you have all your files at your fingertips.

 

[borat_sagdiyev]

i know. lol

 

[joxley1990]

well while i was on vacation, my dad tried going on my comp, and as computer illiterate as he is, i had to lead him through all the boot menues through the phone, and he said there was a black screen when he tried xp. so i told him to go on vista. i was gunna reformat xp this weekend anyway but i was gunna backup everything first

You can still back everything up, you will just have to access it via Vista, or OSX, or another computer.