Can't boot XP even Safe Mode...Help Please

[Don]

HI..I hosed my system trying to disable a hard disk drive
that my kid uses for storage. I couldn't disable it by
device manager and tried to load an erroneous driver and
then I could not boot the PC without a BSOD and "Stop due
to atapi.sys corrupt. I don't want to lose my data and
level the drive. I can't get to Safe mode to do the
restore and the repair/reinstall overlay has failed. Any
help would be appreciated. Thanks Don

[Joseph Conway [MSFT]]

What was the blue screen exactly? Have you tried last known good on the
machine? What driver was installed? Have you tried to rename it and put
the "old" driver in its place?

--
Joseph W. Conway, MCSE
Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server Group

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Don" > wrote in message
...
> HI..I hosed my system trying to disable a hard disk drive
> that my kid uses for storage. I couldn't disable it by
> device manager and tried to load an erroneous driver and
> then I could not boot the PC without a BSOD and "Stop due
> to atapi.sys corrupt. I don't want to lose my data and
> level the drive. I can't get to Safe mode to do the
> restore and the repair/reinstall overlay has failed. Any
> help would be appreciated. Thanks Don

[Jack Gillis]

After trying what Joseph Conway said in his reply, you might try doing a
Repair/Install from the XP CD. You won't lose any of your files or
customization but will have to install any updates again. Now that I
think about it more, I believe I would try that first because of the
customization rather than the Last Good Machine approach. I don't mean
to detract from Joseph's suggestions at all. They are sound and I
respect them.

Good Luck.

I
Don wrote:
> HI..I hosed my system trying to disable a hard disk drive
> that my kid uses for storage. I couldn't disable it by
> device manager and tried to load an erroneous driver and
> then I could not boot the PC without a BSOD and "Stop due
> to atapi.sys corrupt. I don't want to lose my data and
> level the drive. I can't get to Safe mode to do the
> restore and the repair/reinstall overlay has failed. Any
> help would be appreciated. Thanks Don