Hi guys, I have a problem...
System: Desktop, Windows XP, WD Caviar Black hard drive. Ususally a 2TB WD Elements external HDD is connected to the PC.
Problem: When I returned from a short trip and tried to turn on my PC, after short boot sequence I got an error message "Cannot load operating system".
Tried solution: I plugged out all cables out of PC except mouse, keyboard, power cord and display cable, tried to boot, no success.
Then I downloaded Hirens boot cd tools to a USB flash drive and changed boot order in BIOS to load USB drive before HDD.
In Hirens tools I at first run WD diagnostics (quick scan) - it found the drive and returned no errors.
Then, as suggested in a thread on a similar issue, I tried to use "Boot windows (ntldr)" option from Hiren's menu - no success. I also wanted to try using another suggested fix - "fixmbr" - but couldn't find this exact option in Hiren's MBR tools and did not want to risk trying similar tools after reading that MBR fix can potentially wipe out all the contents of HDD.
Finally I loaded Hiren's MiniXP - and to my surprise I found, that in "my computer" it shows only 1 of the 4 partitions of my hard drive (the partition shown is not the one with operating system on it - which might explaing the "error loading operating system").
I have most of my files backed up, and I guess I can salvage anything I need from the 1 of the 4 partitions that I can see and acccess in MiniXP, but I would feel bad about loosing files and installled programms from the main (C) partition, as it will take me a long time to reinstall/tweak everything back...
Given that WD diagnsotics did not find any erros with my HDD, can this problem be solved, so that XP loads normally and I can acess all partitions (hopefully, without reinstall)? What are my next steps and/or what additional information should I provide.
Thanks a lot!
System: Desktop, Windows XP, WD Caviar Black hard drive. Ususally a 2TB WD Elements external HDD is connected to the PC.
Problem: When I returned from a short trip and tried to turn on my PC, after short boot sequence I got an error message "Cannot load operating system".
Tried solution: I plugged out all cables out of PC except mouse, keyboard, power cord and display cable, tried to boot, no success.
Then I downloaded Hirens boot cd tools to a USB flash drive and changed boot order in BIOS to load USB drive before HDD.
In Hirens tools I at first run WD diagnostics (quick scan) - it found the drive and returned no errors.
Then, as suggested in a thread on a similar issue, I tried to use "Boot windows (ntldr)" option from Hiren's menu - no success. I also wanted to try using another suggested fix - "fixmbr" - but couldn't find this exact option in Hiren's MBR tools and did not want to risk trying similar tools after reading that MBR fix can potentially wipe out all the contents of HDD.
Finally I loaded Hiren's MiniXP - and to my surprise I found, that in "my computer" it shows only 1 of the 4 partitions of my hard drive (the partition shown is not the one with operating system on it - which might explaing the "error loading operating system").
I have most of my files backed up, and I guess I can salvage anything I need from the 1 of the 4 partitions that I can see and acccess in MiniXP, but I would feel bad about loosing files and installled programms from the main (C) partition, as it will take me a long time to reinstall/tweak everything back...
Given that WD diagnsotics did not find any erros with my HDD, can this problem be solved, so that XP loads normally and I can acess all partitions (hopefully, without reinstall)? What are my next steps and/or what additional information should I provide.
Thanks a lot!