Houston, we have a problem...

Essendon

My DC's gone down just a few minutes ago. I was in the middle of a lesson when suddenly the screen went blank and got the dreaded "Disk boot failure, install system disk and hit enter"

I popped the CD in, changed it to boot from the CD, hit "r" to repair windows. Then on a blank screen it says, Microsoft Recovery Console. I have tried fixboot, but it says directory not found. I have tried all drives.

WTF is this. I have been able to repair XP from such a situation. Also, I cant use ASR as I dont have an ASR disk (another oversight)

I really dont want to have to format and install the whole thing again, as I have vmware and some other stuff that will have to be reinstalled from a scratch.

Essendon

I suspect that there might be a loose connection to the hard-disk. Will check and post again. Any suggestions?

Essendon

Nope, no loose connections, fixboot and fixmbr dont work either. Perhaps the HD has reached its EOL....

sprkymrk

Can you run a chkdisk from the recovery console/cd?

dynamik

Does the drive appear in the bios/post?

Can you do things like navigate directories from the recovery console?

From your description, I can't tell if your disk failed or if you just have a boot problem.

I don't know if Server 2003 does this, but when you boot from the CD, just skip past the recovery option and continue like it's a regular installation. It might detect the previous installation and ask if you want to do a repair installation, which usually restores the system while leaving all your install apps, etc. in tact.

Essendon

I will have a look when I get back home from work. Thank you gents.

Essendon

I can change directories from the recovery console.

chkdsk from the console/cd says that the volume label has one or more unrecoverable errors. Doesnt sound too good, does it?? Maybe there's a problem with the boot sector..?

I will get an iso image of XP pro and try to bypass the boot sector. That way I can atleast get into the computer and get the drive ready for formatting (backing-up important stuff)...would this work?? as a last resort I will try what dynamik said.

Slowhand

Judging from how your original error occured, and the results of your chkdisk, it's probably time to invest in a new hard drive for that system. You're looking at very probable hardware failure, if you can't have the XP install skip over the bad sectors. Either way, the disk is experiencing issues, and you'll see more errors as time goes on. I'd definitely buy a new hard drive sooner than later, to avoid problems down the line.

dynamik

You could also give spinrite ( www.spinrite.info ) a shot, but it's $90 and might not be worth it unless you have critical data on the drive.

You could also try connecting it to another machine to just get data off it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/325375

Scroll down to "How to Repair Your Installation of Windows".

Essendon

I new hard drive seems certain now. I will try and use the XP disk to skip over the boot sectors to see if I can even attempt to recover the data. Or maybe just hook-up the drive to another computer and get the data and put the old HD in the bin.