System files missing - any recourse possible?
Posted: 2007 Mar 25, 17:39
Hi,
Here's a real blooper, somewhat embarrassing. This is what can, and sometimes does, happen when I should take a break from the computer to clear my head.
I was working on my old machine, neatening up my files. I had forgotten that I had system files set to be visible. Normally they are hidden. I don't remember why I changed it. Plus, I was working in the C: directory, which I normally don't do. Usually I'm at least a couple of levels deep in the file system.
I saw some files there called ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com, autoexec.bat, config.sys, io.sys, and msdos.sys. In a royal bleary-eyed blunder, I moved them to a new folder on the C: drive. Next time I started the machine, guess what? Bad news. The PC is basically dead.
The first time I tried booting from other drives it would boot, but for some reason after that the system will not boot anymore. Just a black screen. When I booted from the XP SP2 CD, I logged in to the Windows directory in DOS mode. It would have been a simple matter to copy the files from the new folder back out to the root directory, but access was denied to all but system folders.
I copied these files from the C: directory of my new PC (also WinXP SP2) to a floppy in the hope that these would work. I booted the sick machine from a WinXP boot floppy, then switched diskettes and tried to copy the files to the C: drive, but kept getting an error that the C: drive was not a valid drive.
As I said, all subsequent attempts to boot from any drive have failed. One time I let the screen be black for about 5 minutes, and a message finally popped up telling me to insert disk. I think it was looking for the C: drive.
I've been searching around in the Microsoft knowledge base, but haven't found anything yet that will fix the no-boot problem. Can't do Recovery Console because I can't install it. Don't know if I could do anything with it, anyway.
Does anyone know if there is a way to save this installation? If not, how can I reinstall Windows?
Thanks.
johno
Here's a real blooper, somewhat embarrassing. This is what can, and sometimes does, happen when I should take a break from the computer to clear my head.
I was working on my old machine, neatening up my files. I had forgotten that I had system files set to be visible. Normally they are hidden. I don't remember why I changed it. Plus, I was working in the C: directory, which I normally don't do. Usually I'm at least a couple of levels deep in the file system.
I saw some files there called ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com, autoexec.bat, config.sys, io.sys, and msdos.sys. In a royal bleary-eyed blunder, I moved them to a new folder on the C: drive. Next time I started the machine, guess what? Bad news. The PC is basically dead.
The first time I tried booting from other drives it would boot, but for some reason after that the system will not boot anymore. Just a black screen. When I booted from the XP SP2 CD, I logged in to the Windows directory in DOS mode. It would have been a simple matter to copy the files from the new folder back out to the root directory, but access was denied to all but system folders.
I copied these files from the C: directory of my new PC (also WinXP SP2) to a floppy in the hope that these would work. I booted the sick machine from a WinXP boot floppy, then switched diskettes and tried to copy the files to the C: drive, but kept getting an error that the C: drive was not a valid drive.
As I said, all subsequent attempts to boot from any drive have failed. One time I let the screen be black for about 5 minutes, and a message finally popped up telling me to insert disk. I think it was looking for the C: drive.
I've been searching around in the Microsoft knowledge base, but haven't found anything yet that will fix the no-boot problem. Can't do Recovery Console because I can't install it. Don't know if I could do anything with it, anyway.
Does anyone know if there is a way to save this installation? If not, how can I reinstall Windows?
Thanks.
johno