so I corrupted my OS (WinXP Pro....don't ask) and when I tried to format and reset everything (after trying to repair the damage, which _I think_ further corrupted the boot sequence if that's possible)

so somewhere in there I went into msconfig and set my OS to boot into safe mode automatically
then I loaded setup

setup rebooted itself

but it refuses to continue in safe mode

so it restarts itself

then I try hitting F8 to make it start in normal mode

MS overrides me and starts in safe mode anyway

setup goes: ooooooo and doesn't wanna start in safe mode

reboot

I put the install CD in and try a CD boot and it tries to boot in safe mode

setup goes... OOOO and then boots itself up

then shuts down OS loading

then reboots the comp

I went and got a floppy drive, installed it, put in a boot floppy

it corrupts the floppy

so I'm running outta ideas.

1/24/2006 4:19:07 AM

go into bios
set boot order to floppy, cd, hard drive
put in xp disc
save changes and reboot
press key when prompted
fix with repair console or do a repair install
patch

1/24/2006 6:46:57 AM

did that, it won't complete, or rather, when it finishes patching, it boots into windows with setup then setup loads the OS and the OS is still in safe mode and.. yeah..

1/24/2006 9:55:17 AM

^
Toss me a PM if you have further problems. Oh, and check my gallery for updates

1/24/2006 12:33:04 PM

then format it

1/24/2006 1:22:10 PM

Somehow you need to edit the boot.ini to remove the safemode string.

boot.ini is a hidden file located on the root of your boot volume (usually the c: drive)

Booting a dos floppy with NTFS support and a text editor would work.

Other options include a BartPE cd (altho that might be overkill) or just putting the hdd into another computer to edit the boot.ini.

1/24/2006 1:28:27 PM

I only had that boot disk floppy :/ and who'd thought that'd start acting weird?

I thought about BartPE, but all I have is a DVD-R. Eh.....

So I think I'll stop messing with it now. This is what happens when you try to remove WinXP Pro with a partition on your computer manually... DON'T DO IT!!!!

Eeeep. It's true what they have on the CD. It won't uninstall. EVER. It's CURSED.

1/24/2006 1:33:18 PM

shout out.

1/24/2006 1:38:35 PM

you could go hardcore and setup a PXE boot server and create a floppy image with network support.

then put all your dos tools (i.e. ntfs4dos) on a network share.


boot to PXE on the busted comp, select the floppy image, mount the network share, NTFS4DOS your C drive, and edit c:\boot.ini.

1/24/2006 1:39:00 PM

the tools in recovery console will let you fix the boot.ini, if they aren't working, something else is wrong

1/24/2006 2:55:04 PM

I took it to a real tech to mess with today :p I figured it was easier than trying to teach myself all these things and I could use my time for more productive things, like sleeping.

After a certain amount of trying, I simply realized that I was too low on the tech scale to fix this myself without having to spend a lot of my precious free time on it.

1/24/2006 5:57:43 PM

Fuck that. I'd rather have no computer than ever to admit defeat and take it to a tech support place. It would just sit there until I could figure it out myself.

1/24/2006 7:28:02 PM

kytica, using the Windows XP cd to boot will enable NTFS security and restrict access to certain files/directories. Its a Catch-22 ... its supposed to be so you don't severely screw up your system but IF your system is already severely screwed up it won't allow you to fix it.

Shaggy mentioned a NTFS for DOS. Try http://www.bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm ... download the first link, NTFS for DOS. Free for private use and automagically formats a floppy disk for use. Go into the root directory of your c drive and rename the boot.ini to boot.old. See if Windows is smart enough to figure out what it should do from there.

1/25/2006 5:49:14 AM