How to abort Repair

"thegammingperson1994"
wrote
>I tried repairing my Operating System, and when it got to the second stage,
> it said it was copying files. I instantly restarted my computer, out of
> fear
> that I would never be able to access my user account. (From a previous
> experience.) Now, whenever I try to load that operating system, it says
> that
> setup is restarting.... then my computer reboots. (I guess my computer is
> pretty worried too ) My question is: Is there any way to stop the setup
> or
> abort it?

Is there a full and complete backup of important data on the drive? If
there is why did you stop the repair process? If not then backup first.
Here are some options on how to do that.

1. Take the drive out of the computer and install it as a slave drive in
another Windows XP or 2000 computer. It should read the drive ok, so you can
copy the data.

2. Create a bootable Bart's PE disk, boot from that, then copy the data to
external USB drive or flash drive.

3. Download a bootable Linux distro called Knoppix. Create a bootable CD
from that, boot from it, and copy the data to USB drive or flash drive, or
if the computer has two CD drives, one of which is a burner, then use the
k3b burning program on the Knoppix CD to burn the data to CD.

4. Take it to a competent computer tech to backup the data.

After the data is backed up then look at ways to fix this situation.

One option is to examine the boot.ini file using a Bart PE disk and remove
any reference to setup, then see if it boots. Another is to redo the repair
install and let it complete.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

John John, that looked very promising, only the link is broken. (Or 404.)
Rock, will editing the boot file really make it skip the setup?
The reason I had tried to reinstall the operating system is because I had
(in itallics) accidentally deleted the boot partition on my hard drive.
Everythings better now, but... I guess you get the idea.
So say that I can successfully boot up to a copy of the operating system on
the same harddrive, what should I delete from the boot.ini?
(I will try to copy and paste it here.)
Thanks!
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

Here's a copy as to what my boot file looks like:
(Anything about the setup?)
P.S. The last one, windows, is the OS that I'm having problems with.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS1
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS1="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

"thegammingperson1994" wrote
> Here's a copy as to what my boot file looks like:
> (Anything about the setup?)
> P.S. The last one, windows, is the OS that I'm having problems with.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> [boot loader]
> timeout=30
> default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS1
> [operating systems]
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS1="Microsoft Windows XP Home
> Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
> Edition" /fastdetect

No I don't see it in there, so that's not it.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

Well, I was just thinking about it, and maybe I should recreate the problem.
If I haven't said this already, I had deleted the boot partition on my hard
drive, which started this all. Then I should be able to do a repair without
any problems. How does that sound?
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

thegammingperson1994 wrote:

> Well, I was just thinking about it, and maybe I should recreate the problem.
> If I haven't said this already, I had deleted the boot partition on my hard
> drive, which started this all. Then I should be able to do a repair without
> any problems. How does that sound?

There are often misunderstanding about the System and Boot Partitions,
the Microsoft terminology on these is not exactly intuitive:

*System Partition*
The system partition refers to the disk volume that contains the
hardware-specific files that are needed to start Windows, such as Ntldr,
Boot.ini, and Ntdetect.com. The system partition can be, but does not
have to be, the same volume as the boot partition.


*Boot Partition*
The boot partition contains the Windows operating system and its support
files. The boot partition can be, but does not have to be, the same as
the system partition. There will be one, and only one, system partition,
but there will be one boot partition for each operating system in a
multi-boot system.

So, which partition did you delete?

John
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

Well, when I looked at it, there was the main partition, with all my data on
it, then there was this little partition. Looking at what you just said, I'm
guessing that it must have been the boot partition. When I deleted it, and my
computer finished it's POST and startup tests, it would always say: PRESS A
TO REBOOT. Sounds like to me I deleted the boot partition. Now, what I'm
thinking of doing now, is to delete the boot partition again, (or whatever
that little partition is.) And repair the operating system. I'm guessing that
it will forget that it was trying to repair originally, then I'll be able to
do it again. Does that sound OK?
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

Do you think we should contact each other by messenger? That would be a lot
faster. My messenger username is lucky0106 RemoveThis @msn.com.
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

No, I don't do messenging and I don't think that it is a good idea to
take the discussion off the help group. If the discussion is kept here
others can offer help and correct any incorrect advice that might be given.

I have reread the thread and I still am unsure as to what exactly it is
that you did and it is still unclear which partition you deleted. If
you deleted the boot partition then there is no Windows left on your
computer to repair so you will have to reinstall the operating system.

How many hard disks do you have in the computer? How many partitions do
each disk have? How did you produce the boot.ini file that you posted
earlier? Did you mount the disk in another computer or use a Bart's or
Linux boot cd? Do you see a Windows folder on one of your partitions?
Does it contain the usual set of Windows files? Did you have more than
one Windows installation on your computer?

John

thegammingperson1994 wrote:

> Do you think we should contact each other by messenger? That would be a lot
> faster. My messenger username is lucky0106.DeleteThis@msn.com.
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

> How many hard disks do you have in the computer? How many partitions do
> each disk have? How did you produce the boot.ini file that you posted
> earlier? Did you mount the disk in another computer or use a Bart's or
> Linux boot cd? Do you see a Windows folder on one of your partitions?
> Does it contain the usual set of Windows files? Did you have more than
> one Windows installation on your computer?

Let's see... 2 Hardisks, 1 partion /ea, Well, I'm not sure what you mean by
produced, but I'll just have to say that it was there. I haven't mounted the
disk or used the bart's CD. I have a windows folder, and another from my
other operating system. Yes, I THINK it contains the usual set of windows
files. I have more than one installation. Both XP home, I made another copy
so I could atleast access my computer. They both use different windows
folders.

Well, the only thing that I can think of that is causng the problem is some
file that keeps trying to restart the setup. I just found out that whenever I
try to access the repair program from MSDOS on the CD, (not the counsol,) I
get an error message and end up having to restart the computer.

Another reason I suggest using messenger is that you'd be able to give me
live assistance, or whatever that name is, so you could look around on my
computer and see what's going on.
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

thegammingperson1994 wrote:

>>How many hard disks do you have in the computer? How many partitions do
>>each disk have? How did you produce the boot.ini file that you posted
>>earlier? Did you mount the disk in another computer or use a Bart's or
>>Linux boot cd? Do you see a Windows folder on one of your partitions?
>>Does it contain the usual set of Windows files? Did you have more than
>>one Windows installation on your computer?
>
>
> Let's see... 2 Hardisks, 1 partion /ea, Well, I'm not sure what you mean by
> produced, but I'll just have to say that it was there. I haven't mounted the
> disk or used the bart's CD. I have a windows folder, and another from my
> other operating system. Yes, I THINK it contains the usual set of windows
> files. I have more than one installation. Both XP home, I made another copy
> so I could atleast access my computer. They both use different windows
> folders.
>
> Well, the only thing that I can think of that is causng the problem is some
> file that keeps trying to restart the setup. I just found out that whenever I
> try to access the repair program from MSDOS on the CD, (not the counsol,) I
> get an error message and end up having to restart the computer.
>
> Another reason I suggest using messenger is that you'd be able to give me
> live assistance, or whatever that name is, so you could look around on my
> computer and see what's going on.

I won't be Remote Desktoping into your computer, someone else will have
to take it from here.

John
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Ok. So you're saying that there's no other way you can help me?
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair 

thegammingperson1994 wrote:
> Ok. So you're saying that there's no other way you can help me?

At this point I would let the aborted repair process finish on the
installation, or rerun it again. I don't think you have much of any
other choice.

John
 >> Stay informed about: How to abort Repair