C:\Minint but no C:\windows in Recovery Console

[drewber]

still dealing with hal.dll error.

I went into Recovery Console with XP professional disk right away the only option to choose was C:\minint. From my research this appears to be a Recovery Partition or a PE. what happened to my c:\windows? I can get to a c:\ prompt but only option there is a Recover directory with Windows files in it, but they are not my Windows files? what can i do to get them back? I've tried bootcfg /restore but did not work. I now get a NTLDR missing error. HELP?

 

[Cyberat_88]

Did you install Recovery Console when XP was up and running ?
Recovery Console has a FixMBR option, just look at command list.
You can always reinstall Windows in a new dir. leaving file system intact (no format) for Data Recovery purposes.

 

[drewber]

Best answer selected by drewber.

 

[drewber]

ended up having to do data recovery. Hiren's Boot CD is AWESOME, was able to use the MiniXP to do a lot of work and get everything I needed from my drive. Partitioned drives and reinstalled windows. I think that a quick shutdown (daughter turned off power instead of shutdown) messed up the MBR causing the hal.ddl error, wasnt able to recover or fix the error. I learned a heck of alot though! Great learning experience.

 

[Cyberat_88]

The only thing power off can mess up is your memory cache file and any other caches from external drives. I would scan whole pc for virus/malware.