PCA Forums

Screwed up my boot.ini file. It had 2 boot options so I wanted to remove one, and dummy me took out part of the other. So now it won't boot, goes to a command prompt and says to run "SCANREG".

Anyone know how to do that at the command prrompt? Or how to fix the boot.ini file without getting in windows.

Using xp

Now it is asking for the "command intrepeter", what is that?

found something that may help, check your pm

i used to know how to change it from dos.....


so sorry I am not much help now...............well im never really much help. I just kinda take up space and bandwidth.

well hope you get it fixed

Well f*ck! Looks like another damned reinstall. Over something that sounds so easy to fix as this.

My gawd, all I did was edit the boot.ini file, there must be a way to fix that. Tried what you pm'd to me bill, no go.

Try this first: http://tweakhomepc.virtualave.net/dual/bootcfg.html

No Ghost image backup? FOR SHAME!

You should be able to boot using the XP CD, and in one of the menus there should be an option to restore to an earlier restore point which *may* fix the problem.

I've never had to do a system restore from the CD, so I can't be specific - just know it can be done.

Want about an OS repair??

Originally posted by Sean
Want about an OS repair??

Yeah that is what I was thinking...cant you boot of the CD and first choose to install XP and then on second screen choose to repair existing installation?

I was thinking the System Restore would be quicker and easier since an OS repair will involve re-installing some drivers and re-installing the service pack and updates, but a repair should fix it too.

but i thought he couldn't get into the OS to do a system restore? seems like repair's the only way

Corupted boot.ini, failed overclocking attempt?

These problems only have happened when I had the barton in. So now I am convincxed the hard drive didn't like running at 166. And this gigabyte just is not comp[atable with a barton, no 1/5 pci divider.

Installing it all again. But will stay with the xp2k till the asus comes in.

And btw, tried all those things, repair, recovery, etc..says too corrupted to continue. Did a low level on this hard drive and it checked out ok.


Thanks for the help guys

CHOTTOED: As I said before, there IS a way to run a System Restore from the CD boot. Just don't remember how off hand. Haven't needed to do it yet.

If you haven't done it yet Blade, I think I found what you're looking for:

The Recovery Console

If it is not possible to use any of the Safe Modes to recover the system, other than reinstalling Windows over itself, you will have to try using the Recovery Console, which is also available in Windows NT and Windows 2000.

The best way to run the Recovery Console is by doing so from the Windows XP CD, but it is possible to make six XP boot disks that allow you to run it. They provide you with the same options as booting from the Windows XP CD.

It is possible to download the files from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads. There are separate versions for XP Home and XP Professional editions. But, for security reasons, Microsoft will be abandoning this method in future versions of Windows.

Either way, you will be presented with the option to run the Recovery Console. You will have to enter the administrator's or user's password to gain access to the system.

The Recovery Console itself looks like the standard XP command prompt console, but you can only use set commands, some of which are very powerful, so don't use them unless you know what you are doing.

The Recovery Console provides a DOS-like command prompt that allows the use of a number of repair commands. Enter Help to bring up a list of these commands.

MAP displays drive letter mappings.

FIXMBR rewrites the code of the Master Boot Record of drive 0 - usually the primary master hard disk drive.

FIXBOOT rewrites the above drive's boot sector.

BOOTCFG displays or rebuilds the operating system list in the Boot.ini file.

You can, of course, read up on the Recovery Console (or any of the other features mentioned) in the XP Help files, and you can find plenty of articles on the subject by entering the term in the Google and Vivisimo search engines, or by conducting a Google Groups search of past Usenet posts.