Well I thought I was following yuo until I got to your ver las t sentecne!!
and then:
This post (and the others) are from a different machine entirely.


"geezer" wrote:

> On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 09:02:02 -0800, "Dixonian69"
> <Dixonian69@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Your best bet for help is to only make changes made and reply about add'l
> >problems before making those changes!!!
> >
> >Everyone is trying to help but only do what is suggested. Do not proceed w/o
> >psoting new problems and waiting for assisstance before maiking changes!!
> >
> >Are working with only one computer? OR are yuo putting bad drive in a
> >different computer?
> >
> >The bad "C" drive is primary master with jumper set as master and is Only HD
> >in computer?
> >
> >You had ntldr and ntdetect.com and a boot.ini file with entries that yuo
> >provided.
> >You booted up. You received an error message. You should have stopped and
> >reposted problem!!
> >
> >You said at one time bad drive would boot normally but not in safe mode?
> >Is that still true?
> >
> >"geezer" wrote:
> >
> >> On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 14:51:09 -0000, "John Barnett MVP"
> >> <freelanceit@mvps.org.NOSPAM> wrote:
> >>
> >> >Geezer, visit my website http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Click the Win XP
> >> >Faq button and take a look at question 10 'How do i create an emergency
> >> >start up disk for XP' You will need a floppy disk for this. Once you have
> >> >created the floppy disk reboot your computer with the floppy in the floppy
> >> >drive. If all goes well you should be able to boot to the windows desktop.
> >> >If the emergency floppy has booted to the desktop then go to Windows
> >> >explorer and click on the floppy drive. The contents of the floppy disk will
> >> >become visible (you must have 'show hidden files and folder, etc enabled
> >> >otherwise you will not be bale to see the boot.ini file (see question 11 on
> >> >my site). Now copy the contents - boot.ini. NTDetect, NTLDR from the floppy
> >> >to your C: drive and then reboot again. Hopefully, assuming the floppy
> >> >worked, this should repair the problem and you should be able to boot as
> >> >normal.
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >> You sound very knowledgable and your site is one to keep accessible on
> >> this end.
> >>
> >> I tried what it says to do, which really is to grab the 'ntldr' and
> >> ntdetect.com files from the hard drive - then create a new boot.ini
> >> file with content
> >> [boot loader]
> >> timeout=30
> >> Default= multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows [operating
> >> systems]
> >> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Windo ws XP"
> >>
> >> I can find no ntldr or ntdetect file. Remember I have my skeleton
> >> drive as c drive and the bad drive as d drive. Both have what look to
> >> be valid XP structures. I looked (searched) on both drives. Yes, I
> >> have view set to see hidden & system files.
> >>
> >> However, I did find the 2 files on my XP installation CD. So I used
> >> them to make the so-called emergency startup diskette.
> >>
> >> With the bad drive as c drive, and the only drive, I booted up from
> >> the floppy. It told me that a so-called 'hal.dll' file is missing or
> >> corrupt. I copied that file from my skeleton XP drive, and placed it
> >> on both the floppy and in the bad drive's c:\windows\system32 (which
> >> was a 'replace'). I re booted from the floppy again, with only the
> >> bad drive in place (as c drive), and I get the same error.
> >>
> >> What now?
> >> Thanks again
> >> Geezer
> >>
>
> Up thru yesterday the drive booted okay, but different apps were
> failing, so I opted to try a XP re-install (not fresh). I did not
> want to lose any of my apps or data. I run with this drive as the
> only drive (c).
>
> After I did the re-install, the drive would no longer boot.
>
> I made it a second (slave) drive (d), and mounted a spare small drive
> (c) I had from the past that had just a copy of XP on it - nothing
> else. I just wanted to see if the drive that wouldn't boot still had
> my data and apps. It did. It still does in fact. It was in this
> mode that I could not find ntldr or ntdetect.com on either drive - so
> I copied them from the installation CD.
>
> All of my trials have been with the failing drive as c drive alone.
>
> This post (and the others) are from a different machine entirely.
>
> Sorry for any confusions I may have caused.
>
> Geezer
>