urgent: laptop not booting

[VJ]

Hello,

I have an urgent question: my laptop is no longer booting, not in last good config, not in safe mode. The error message says that a system file has gone corrupt. The solution would be to boot from cd, but it has no internal cd drive and as I noticed in the past it won't boot from my usb plextor (have made a succesful boot from a usb Sony drive).

But getting to that sony might be difficult now (holidays), so I'm thinking to boot from a thumb drive. How do I copy a bootable cd onto a thumbdrive?
Do I just copy all the files? Will it boot?

Thanks!

Jorg

[Gurm]

If it won't boot from your USB CD, odds are it won't boot from the thumbdrive, either.

If you can't get to the recovery console, or to safe mode, you're pretty well boned.

[VJ]

If it won't boot from your USB CD, odds are it won't boot from the thumbdrive, either.

No, it never boots from my usb cd; but I have no problem getting it to boot from a Sony usb cd (tested quite a while ago, problem is most likely with the plextor). Only problem is: I can't get to that sony now. But I can get to a thumbdrive.

Jörg

[MultimediaMan]

It might be easier to set up a PXE boot...if you already have another PC, you can setup a DHCP server and PXE boot an ISO.

[Wulfman]

get yourself a 2,5" adapter and put the hdd in a regular pc.

mfg
wulfman

[VJ]

Putting the hdd is perfect for salvaging data, but I don't think installing windows that way is easy (last resort ).

It might be easier to set up a PXE boot...if you already have another PC, you can setup a DHCP server and PXE boot an ISO.

The laptop supports PXE boot. What do I need to set it up on the other pc?
(I have another pc running Vista Ultimate and one running XP Pro.) DHCP is currently done by my nat-router.

edit: I would prefer to use the Vista machine (more diskspace, less critical system).

Jörg

[VJ]

I found this tutorial:

http://thesystemadministrator.com/The_System_Administrator/Tips_%26_Tricks/PXE%2C_aka_Pre-Execution_Environment_-_Part_1/

I'll probably be able to try it on Sunday or Monday. For the PXE purpose, I'll reconfigure the vista pc to be the dhcp server, and try the above steps....

edit: one more thing...
How do I make the image of the cd? (would any normal .iso image do?)

Jörg

[VJ]

Would it be better to use WDS?

Or can I use a .iso image created from the original xp cd in the above scenario?


Jörg

[Wulfman]

it should be possible to "repair" the xp installation if you put the hdd into another pc, without a complete installation, using the recovery console. wouldn't bet my life on it though.

mfg
wulfman

[MultimediaMan]

You can setup a very quick and easy TFTPd/ Netbooting service by using the Windows Embedded Remote Boot Tool (Q820683_XPE_SP2_x86_ENU.exe) in conjunction with your existing DHCP server - most DHCP servers will work right out of the box with this. Whatever machine you have this service installed on will become the boot server.

If you want to stay in the Win32 Environment, use a BartPE ISO or WinPEv1.6 ISO which has an image size of LESS than 256MB.

Very Important: You will also need the ntldr file from Windows Server 2003 SP1 x86: failing to use that particular version of ntldr can cause problems on booting...

--a-- W32i APP ENU 5.2.3790.1830 shp 278,016 03-24-2005 ntldr

[VJ]

Cool, thanks!
Does that embedded windows thing also work in Vista?

So if I understand correctly, the machine booting from the network will start this WinPE or BartPE iso? How do I then move to the xp cd? (I think reinstalling windows would be best)

Thanks again,

Jörg

[VJ]

ok, I have browsed a lot, and think I understand what I need to install xp using a vista machine as pxe server.
In the WinPE scenario:
1. dhcp & tftpd on my vista machine (tools I found in the link I posted would work, right?, but is there something easier like the embedded remote boot thing for vista?)
2. image of a boot cd (do I need to make an iso using WinPE build tools and my supplied xp CD, or just take an iso of my cd? If needed, where do I find those build tools?)

still somewhat confused...

Jörg

[MultimediaMan]

When you are in the Windows PE environment, map a drive manually to a machine which has the contents of the XP Setup CD in a directory....

Navigate to the i386 directory and execute winnt32.exe and Windows Setup will start...when the pre-setup program exits, exit windows PE and let setup commence normally.

As far an ISO goes, it's pretty straightforward...

In the TFTP root directory, you should have 4 files...

1) ntldr (Extracted from Server 2003 SP1 x86 Source files )
2) BartPE or WinPE disk ISO image (name it "WinPE.iso" without quotes).
3) winnt.sif which contains the following text:

[SetupData]
BootDevice = "ramdisk(0)"
BootPath = "\i386\System32\"
OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /minint /rdexportascd /rdpath=WinPE.iso"

4) startrom.com (Extracted from the Server 2003 SP1 x86 Source files)

I warn you... Once you start using WinPE or BartPE and network-based installations, it is hard to go back to the CD.

[UtwigMU]

Some HP laptops want HP branded USB CD-ROM to boot. Or they will boot from generic USB CD-ROM if you connect USB HP branded Floppy. Thinkpads boot from USB CD-ROMs without problems. You can also put disk in desktop using 2.5" adapter, do repair install from there and put disk back in laptop.

Download Hitachi Drive Fitness test first (it will scan for bad sectors on all brands not just Hitachi/IBM), if drive is bad you need to replace it first.

You can also boot from USB thumbdrive, HP USB Format utility will make one bootable.

[VJ]

Utwig: I don't think it is a physical problem. I had just installed a new software in Windows, and it completely messed up (e.g. taskmanager had to be closed!). I needed to reboot, and then the problem surfaced. Either way, if I get that network boot running, I could probably scan the drive then.

MMM: Thanks! I'm now searching and downloading all the required files (internet where my vista machine is, is not stable).

Jörg