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September 29th, 2008 14:00
Changed drive letters, computer won't start up now
Dell Dimension 8400
Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
4 GB RAM at 533
XP Pro SP3
Bios A02
Hello. I wasn't sure where to post this as far as software vs. hardware. I was attempting to back up my hard drive to an external hard drive. The program (Norton Ghost 14) wasn't recognizing the drive. The Norton tech. helped me determine this was because under Disk Management there were no drive letters next to the drives. It showed a small partition on my primary drive, my primary drive, and my usb connected external hard drive, but none had drive letters next to them. I attempted to change their drive letters. It did something, but the letters still didn't show next to the drives. After this, everything disappeared on my desktop. I then rebooted and couldn't get to the login screen normally or through Safe Mode.
Right now, when I start my computer I get the Dell bios revision screen, then the black MS Windows XP screen, and then the blue XP screen. Everything looks normal except that it stops short of the login area.
My guess is that by changing the primary drive letter that my computer now cannot find anything because it appears the C drive is missing.
Anyone know how to fix this? Thank you for your time in advance!
-bdubs2
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RoHe
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September 30th, 2008 00:00
Reboot and press F8 before XP starts to load. Select "last known good" from the list. If that works and you get to your regular desktop, shut down normally and reboot normally, and you're good to go.
Ron
bdubs2
27 Posts
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September 30th, 2008 02:00
Thank you Ron for your reply. Last known good did not work.
I contacted Dell chat tech support. They had me do a repair which didn't fix it.
I got in partially using the Ghost 14.0 recovery disk. I checked the boot.ini file as well as some other files and they appeared all correct.
I got in where I could edit the registry using BartPE. I did this based on Microsoft article 223188. I followed this exactly and it still got stuck at the last blue xp screen right before the login box.
RoHe
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September 30th, 2008 16:00
Did you disconnect the external hard drive and other peripherals that might be seen as a storage device (eg, card reader, printer with card slot, etc.)?
Ron
bdubs2
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September 30th, 2008 17:00
The external hard drive is disconnected. The printer is networked (this pc is not directly connected). I went through the Recovery Console and it shows:
-: Partition1 [FAT] 55 MB <34 MB free>
C: Partition2 [NTFS] 152563 MB <17469 MB free>
Unpartitioned space 8 MB
Looking at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices it shows:
Default
\??\Volume{84474ae2-....
\??\Volume{84474ae3-....
\??\Volume{84474ae4-....
\DosDevices\C:
\DosDevices\D:
\DosDevices\X: (I'm guessing this is from using BartPE to access this)
I read something about deleting everything in MountedDevices and letting Windows rebuild it next time it boots, but I have some fear doing this.
Another idea is running Restore (rstrui.exe?) from the BartPE command prompt, but I couldn't figure it out...the prompt is x:\i386\System32>
Thoughts? Thank you again Ron for your reply!
RoHe
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September 30th, 2008 17:00
I suppose you could use regedit to rename \DosDevice\C: to \DosDevic\Z: and try naming the other ones, one at a time to \C: to see if you can find the that really should be the boot drive. Be sure to keep track of what's named what so you can get everything right when you're done. ;)
Can you run Restore from BartPE? I dunno. But if the wrong drive is named C:\ in the registry, it's not going to find it anyway...
Ron
bdubs2
27 Posts
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September 30th, 2008 18:00
Thanks again for your reply Ron.
I did switch the C: and D: per the Microsoft article and it still didn't boot. They recommened renaming one Z like you mentioned which would allow naming the other C, etc.
I don't know either if I can run restore from BartPE. The prompt is x:\i386\System32> I don't know how to work with this prompt. I'll Google it and see if I find anything.
bdubs2
27 Posts
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September 30th, 2008 19:00
I got it! We had the right idea Ron with restore... Thank you again Ron for your help.
Solution:
1. Access system using BartPE bootable CD (created using PE Builder)
2. Access Restore Points through System Volume Information
3. Copy System and Software restore points from time when the system booted (I right clicked on each point to see the date and time).
4. Delete System and Software files in the System32 config file and paste in the restore versions and rename.
*Note: this is overly simplified. DO NOT USE THIS AS INSTRUCTIONS! If you need to do this, here is the full details and where I got the solution from: http://www.icompute.info/restore_with_B_PE_disk.htm
(I did make a donation:)