XP won't boot

El Vaquero

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I just uninstalled StyleXP and when I rebooted so that I could install SP1 and have USB 2.0 work, it wouldn't boot. I think that StyleXP didn't set the boot file back to the original when I uninstalled, or that it didn't reset the Logon screen. Now it will go through the boot screen, hang for a second and then restart. When I tried to use the Windows XP boot disc and repair the install it said that it could not find any hard drives. I do have them installed through a RAID controller, but the software is obviously installed already. I have files on my computer that are extremely important, and I cannot afford to lose them, I have been working on a computer simulation of a black hole for the last 6 months. My only other theory is that one or both of the hard drives dies on me, in which case I might just have to kill myself!

Any ideas on how I can atleast recover the files I need, or to fix the current problem? Please help!!!!!
 
you could install windows as an upgrade, you'll need to press F6 when starting and load the drivers from a floppy disk that will allow the windows installer to see the hard drives, installing the OS as an upgrade will ensure that your files are kept as the drive won't be formatted...

Another way to recover the files would be to get another drive and just put it on an IDE channel so you can install windows.

Assuming you are right and StyleXP has corrupted the boot sector, you can use fixboot from the recovery console, or fdisk /MDB from the dos prompt (this assumes that you can see the drives through your raid controller.

SO...
to re-cap. boot from the CD, press F6 to install aditional drivers when the screen first goes blue, install the raid drivers from a disk, and then use either fix boot or an ungrade installation to preserve your existing files.
 
I actually did load the drivers and got into repair mode on the XP install disc, and when I ran fixboot nothing changed with how it was booting up. I will try to install it as an upgrade, and hopefully it will work.
 
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