Friend's computer won't load WinXP

[Layzie310]

My friend is running Windows XP and after some problems he can no longer boot. He was having trouble getting Nero to work without creating coasters (I have no idea why) so he tried Easy CD Creator 5.0 Basic (with the update from Roxio.com) and he was halfway through his first cd when the thing locked up completely and he restarted his computer. So, he gets to the part where the OS starts to load and he gets a stop error message (the 0x0000007B one about inaccessible boot devices) and he can't load safe mode or anything (they bring up the same thing). This is with a BE6-II so he tried turning off the Highpoint controller and conencting the hard drive to one of the other IDE connectors and he still gets the same message? I wish I could go help him at his house but I'm a couple hours away. Next, he's going to try booting off the boot disks and running the recovery console but I don't know what exactly to try in there.

 

[SemperFi]

Yea, recovery console. There are a couple of options there for recovery, one uses ERD the other doesn't. The Emergency Recovery Disk is the preffered method although out of the several times I had to use recovery I only had one that was so bad that it needed ERD. Of course I didn't have one and had to reinstall.

From the sounds of it recovery console should take care of it without ERD. I would highly recomend having an ERD for 2000/XP it can save you a lot of headaches.

Hope it works for you.

Semper Fi

 

[Layzie310]

Do you know what to try once in the recovery console? I've never used it so I have no idea. Any links with help?

 

[Layzie310]

And now a new twist to the story. My friend loads the 6 boot disks, gets to the recovery console and is told to enter a password, he enters it and is told it's incorrect. He then proceeds to go through this process many times in a row. So, now in the process of his Windows XP install getting messed up the password has gotten messed up too. I'm thinking reinstall at this point. Are there other options?

 

[Bglad]

Seems to me I remember some talk about Nero and EZCD not getting along together on the same computer. If I remember correctly even registry entries had to be manually removed before the other could be installed.

This was a while ago and I had a great time in college so I don't remember much else. I would think these issues would have been resolved by newer versions though.

 

[SemperFi]

If at all possible I would boot the cd instead of the floppys. Also I am not sure if xp has the hot point drivers built in you may have to f6 just like you are installing new and load the hotpoint drivers.

I don't remember what the exact wording is but I am thinking that the first place for user interaction it asks if you want to install xp or repair an installation. After choosing repair there should be 3 options. Repair with and without ERD and te third is recovery console which will take you to a dos like prompt. These are not the exactly the instructions or prompts. But it is as good as I remember. Plus I haven't used recovery on xp only on 2000. My memory isn't what it used to be so don't hold me to it.

You should be able to wade through the startup and get to the recovery tools. My first time using recovery console was blind but I didn't have any problem figuring it out. I will check after work and if you still need more info I will boot my cd and find out exactly what the prompts are called.

 

[Layzie310]

Thank you for your help SemperFi. I don't think we'll need you to go that far but thanks anyways. I haven't been able to talk to my friend today so I don't know what's up. He told me late yesterday he knew someone who'd take a look at it.