Windows XP Repair functionality

[der_kluge]

Long story short, my PC got blasted by a power surge, and apparently fried my motherboard. So, I bought a new one (and upgraded the CPU a little, too) and came home and removed my old motherboard, disconnected all the peripherals, and put the new m/b in.

I booted up, and everything seemed ok. It checked the RAM, and then attempted to boot, and despite my best efforts, the bootup just ain't happening. When it boots, it pulls up a screen that informs me that Windows didn't close gracefully, and gives me some options like boot to Windows w/command line, boot normally, boot from last best configuration, safe mode, etc. None of them work. I get a BSOD on all of them.

I configured the BIOS to boot from CD, and loaded an XP CD, and got it to boot into XP, and it gave me a repair option, which I chose.

Currently, my computer is doing a chkdsk, and it's going on 2 hours at this point, and is about 70% complete. No idea why it's taking so long.

Anyway, if I go into the Repair option, it sends me to C: (after I choose that option), and I can see all my stuff. Well, I can see everything in C:\windows and in the root drive, but I can't go anywhere, which is frustrating.

I ran some command (fixboot, I think) that said it appeared that my MBR (master boot record) was non-existent or corrupt, which I suppose could be a possibility. I DID NOT create a new one, as it said that it could wipe out the partition, and I know that that has the potential of being very, very bad. Especially if I want to ever recover anything off this disk again.


So I'm looking for advice. Assuming the chkdsk /p thing that I'm running now doesn't fix the problem, can I safely repair the MBR and recover everything on the drive?

I tried booting off another hard drive. The windows 98 logo came up (it's an older drive), and then went nowhere... but I might try that again, as I had a theory that maybe the EIDE ribbon was maybe a little bad. So I could try that again with this new ribbon I have on there now.

Other option is to take it back to the store where I bought the motherboard, crying a little bit, and throwing lots of cash at the problem to have them fix it for me.

 

[GlassJaw]

I'e always been wary of the Windows repair functionality. Do a fresh install. It's the only way to be sure everything's working. A motherboard swap is an automatic OS reinstall IMO.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Whenever you change the motherboard on a PC, you are in for a possible CHIPSET change. Since the chipset/mobo drivers are integral to your specific XP install for your old Mobo, this is very possibly your problem. Sometimes this can be fixed by booting XP in safe mode (not using the restore option), letting the new drivers pickup in safe mode, then rebooting in normal mode and logging in. If this doesnt work you are in for a possible REGEN, having to flatten and reinstall your XP. If your mobo came with a disk, and safe mode doesnt auto pickup your new chipset, then you can boot into safe mode, insert the disk that came with your mobo into the CDROM, delete the mobo chipset from your DEVICE MANAGER, and redetect it, hoping to force the drivers to catch off of the MOBO disk. Either way, good luck!

To boot into safe mode hold down F8 after the bios posts until an option screen appears. Then select SAFE MODE from the list.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

My advice would be to add the drive as a second drive in another computer, pull everything you want off of it and save to cd, replace drive back in your PC, wipe the drive, then reimage. If you have problems now, chances are you'll continue having problems in the future until you install a clean image.

 

[Henry]

All I can really say is, I second that advice. As annoying as it is, a re-install may be your best option. If nothing else, it'll prove if your hard drive is possibly physically damaged from the power surge.

 

[der_kluge]

My advice would be to add the drive as a second drive in another computer, pull everything you want off of it and save to cd, replace drive back in your PC, wipe the drive, then reimage. If you have problems now, chances are you'll continue having problems in the future until you install a clean image.

I may try that as a last option... or at least as a stopgap solution. I certainly would be able to sleep better at night knowing that I have a recent backup...

My early attempts at booting to an older hard drive didn't work, but I want to try that again, and then see if I can make mine a slave.

Otherwise, I'll try to the "fixmbr" and "fixboot" commands to see if that gets me anywhere.

 

[D+1]

Long story short, my PC got blasted by a power surge, and apparently fried my motherboard. So, I bought a new one (and upgraded the CPU a little, too) and came home and removed my old motherboard, disconnected all the peripherals, and put the new m/b in.

Somebody check me if I'm wrong but any part of your computer that uses electricity has the capability to fry along with a motherboard, CPU, et. al. Since that includes everything in your computer you need to accept the possiblity of more than just MB damage. Hard drives are doubly vulnerable. In addition to its hard circuitry it spends it's life reading and writing to an extremely rapidly spinning piece of magnetic media. When you introduce power surges and power dropouts into the mix you can VERY easily ruin anything that your hard drive keeps track of - like File Allocation Tables and boot tracks.

I agree with the others - mount it as a slave drive and pull everything important off of it now while you still can access it. Then at the very least wipe it clean and start with a fresh install. Personally, I would never trust it again and if I ever bothered to use it at all it would be strictly for backups or non-critical data storage, and never again as a boot drive. I've had my fair share of drives get freaked and they are NEVER the same again IME.

BTW, invest in a UPS. They are NOT costly. In fact they are so cheap there is simply no excuse for not having one for at least your case and monitor if not all your components. A $35-$50 APC 6 port UPS would have saved you the cost of replacing motherboard, CPU, and scrambling to salvage your hard drive.

So I'm looking for advice. Assuming the chkdsk /p thing that I'm running now doesn't fix the problem, can I safely repair the MBR and recover everything on the drive?

I doubt that it will, but you never know. Chkdsk fixed problems on a hard drive or two for me back under Win98, but I haven't personally SEEN it do anything but waste time after XP came along.

I tried booting off another hard drive. The windows 98 logo came up (it's an older drive), and then went nowhere... but I might try that again, as I had a theory that maybe the EIDE ribbon was maybe a little bad. So I could try that again with this new ribbon I have on there now.

Well, like I was saying you can never tell what'll get fried with a power surge - I once had a power surge blow out the fuse on a surge protector strip and go on to fry a VCR while leaving a 50" projection TV unharmed. It won't hurt to try but I think you're probably just grasping at straws there.

Other option is to take it back to the store where I bought the motherboard, crying a little bit, and throwing lots of cash at the problem to have them fix it for me.

Throwing gobs of money at computers can always make them start working again - but seldom can repair the damage left in their wake when they go non-linear.

 

[der_kluge]

Well, I got it to work. I installed XP from the CD again, and everything seems to be kosher once again. Fortunately the Windows XP install feature is smart enough to know to recognize that there is an existing install present, so it's rather painless.

I promptly made backups of my songs and the pics of my daughter. So, we feel a lot better knowing those things are backed up.