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#1
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I
get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? |
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#2
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 1/17/2014 3:51 PM, Jon Danniken wrote:
Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? Yup, that is a classic sign that it can't find anything bootable. Sounds like the BIOS can see the hard drive since you booted from the CD and allowed you to make changes to the drive. But it wouldn't hurt to peek into the BIOS and see if it can see it. I seem to recall fixboot and fixmbr doesn't always correctly fix the boot.ini file. Could you post a copy of it? Most of the time it isn't booting, its trying to boot from the wrong partition. -- Bill Motion Computing LE1700 Tablet ('09 era) - Thunderbird v12 Centrino Core2 Duo L7400 1.5GHz - 2GB RAM - Windows 8 Professional |
#3
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 01/17/2014 02:19 PM, BillW50 wrote:
On 1/17/2014 3:51 PM, Jon Danniken wrote: Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? Yup, that is a classic sign that it can't find anything bootable. Sounds like the BIOS can see the hard drive since you booted from the CD and allowed you to make changes to the drive. But it wouldn't hurt to peek into the BIOS and see if it can see it. I seem to recall fixboot and fixmbr doesn't always correctly fix the boot.ini file. Could you post a copy of it? Most of the time it isn't booting, its trying to boot from the wrong partition. Thanks Bill. Yeah, I can see the hard drive with no trouble, I re-installed grub and it boots into linux just fine, even detects the windows system and sets up a line to boot into it. boot.ini is as follows: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Window s [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Thanks again, Jon |
#4
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 01/17/2014 03:51 PM, Jon Danniken wrote:
Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? The third file needed for booting is ntdetect.com is it present? Also: I'd try running chkdsk /r from the repair console. |
#5
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 1/17/2014 6:38 PM, Jon Danniken wrote:
On 01/17/2014 02:19 PM, BillW50 wrote: On 1/17/2014 3:51 PM, Jon Danniken wrote: Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? Yup, that is a classic sign that it can't find anything bootable. Sounds like the BIOS can see the hard drive since you booted from the CD and allowed you to make changes to the drive. But it wouldn't hurt to peek into the BIOS and see if it can see it. I seem to recall fixboot and fixmbr doesn't always correctly fix the boot.ini file. Could you post a copy of it? Most of the time it isn't booting, its trying to boot from the wrong partition. Thanks Bill. Yeah, I can see the hard drive with no trouble, I re-installed grub and it boots into linux just fine, even detects the windows system and sets up a line to boot into it. boot.ini is as follows: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Window s [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Thanks again, The two lines that contains: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) Is the part we are interested in. When you change one, you should also change the other one. The disk(0) part should be right on a single drive system. Unless you are using a PATA drive set as a slave. Then it should probably be disk(1), but that isn't usually the problem. Just something to think about for later. That partition(1) part is saying that Windows is on the second partition on the drive. Do you know if it is? If it is on the first partition, then it should say partition(0). This is the one that I usually find is wrong. It doesn't hurt to change this one, except if it is wrong, Windows won't boot. That is okay, as you could always change it. -- Bill Motion Computing LE1700 Tablet ('09 era) - Thunderbird v12 Centrino Core2 Duo L7400 1.5GHz - 2GB RAM - Windows 8 Professional |
#6
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 1/17/2014 6:49 PM, philo wrote:
On 01/17/2014 03:51 PM, Jon Danniken wrote: Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? The third file needed for booting is ntdetect.com is it present? Also: I'd try running chkdsk /r from the repair console. That all and fine advice Philo, but I don't think I ever seen a boot problem with just a flashing cursor that had part of Windows load. If one of the boot files is missing or corrupt or anything, you will usually get some sort of Windows error. Some of the errors are very misleading of course, but you usually get something. I think it can't find where Windows is at. -- Bill Motion Computing LE1700 Tablet ('09 era) - Thunderbird v12 Centrino Core2 Duo L7400 1.5GHz - 2GB RAM - Windows 8 Professional |
#7
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 01/17/2014 05:20 PM, BillW50 wrote:
On 1/17/2014 6:38 PM, Jon Danniken wrote: boot.ini is as follows: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Window s [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Thanks again, The two lines that contains: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) Is the part we are interested in. When you change one, you should also change the other one. The disk(0) part should be right on a single drive system. Unless you are using a PATA drive set as a slave. Then it should probably be disk(1), but that isn't usually the problem. Just something to think about for later. That partition(1) part is saying that Windows is on the second partition on the drive. Do you know if it is? If it is on the first partition, then it should say partition(0). This is the one that I usually find is wrong. It doesn't hurt to change this one, except if it is wrong, Windows won't boot. That is okay, as you could always change it. Thanks Bill. This is indeed the only disk in the system, and checking with the BIOS it is configured as master. Windows is indeed the first partition on the disk (it was the first OS I installed). I tried changing multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1) to multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0) (in both lines), but still no joy (I even tried (2) just for fun. Thanks, Jon |
#8
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 01/17/2014 04:49 PM, philo wrote:
On 01/17/2014 03:51 PM, Jon Danniken wrote: Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? The third file needed for booting is ntdetect.com is it present? Thanks philo, it is indeed present, and of the same size as the one on the desktop installation of XP. Also: I'd try running chkdsk /r from the repair console. Tried that, still no joy. Thanks, Jon |
#9
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 01/17/2014 08:26 PM, Jon Danniken wrote:
On 0X The third file needed for booting is ntdetect.com is it present? Thanks philo, it is indeed present, and of the same size as the one on the desktop installation of XP. Also: I'd try running chkdsk /r from the repair console. Tried that, still no joy. Thanks, Jon Good stumper. If it were my own machine I'd confirm hardware is good. RAM test and manufacturer's hard drive diagnostic If all good, I'd perform a repair install. Hopefully someone here has a less drastic solution |
#10
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
"Jon Danniken" wrote in message ...
Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? Start the recovery console and type the following: diskpart select disk 0 select partition 1 active exit exit Ben |
#11
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
Ben Myers wrote:
"Jon Danniken" wrote in message ... Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? Start the recovery console and type the following: diskpart select disk 0 select partition 1 active exit exit Ben If Linux is still booting, you can also check which partition has the boot flag set, from there. GRUB doesn't use the boot flag and doesn't need it. While Windows does. The puzzling part would be, why would a boot flag "go away" ? What would have cleared it ? Paul |
#12
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 01/18/2014 03:41 PM, Paul wrote:
Ben Myers wrote: X Ben If Linux is still booting, you can also check which partition has the boot flag set, from there. GRUB doesn't use the boot flag and doesn't need it. While Windows does. The puzzling part would be, why would a boot flag "go away" ? What would have cleared it ? Paul I've seen a bad shut down change a drive label. I suppose anything can happen |
#13
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 1/18/2014 3:41 PM, Paul wrote:
Ben Myers wrote: "Jon Danniken" wrote in message ... Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? Start the recovery console and type the following: diskpart select disk 0 select partition 1 active exit exit Ben If Linux is still booting, you can also check which partition has the boot flag set, from there. I think Linux was killed off from booting when he did fixmbr and fixboot. Although later he repaired it and Linux still loads. GRUB doesn't use the boot flag and doesn't need it. While Windows does. The puzzling part would be, why would a boot flag "go away" ? What would have cleared it ? It isn't clear why Windows won't boot. All we know there is a flashing cursor and nothing else when trying to boot Windows. I automatically assume and focus on that it can't find Windows at all. Although this isn't a sure thing or anything, but that is the first thing that I would assume. But we don't know this for sure. We also know that the BIOS can see the hard drive and the computer can boot from an optical drive. And the boot OS from the optical drive can see and change things on the hard drive (even on the Windows partition). Philo immediately jumped on a problem with one of the Windows boot files. I shied away from that idea based on the flashing cursor. As if Windows has any chance to load and you just end up with a hanging flashing cursor isn't usually one of them. Usually it pops up an error about something. Usually about some file that may not really have anything to do with it. But Jon (the OP) checked everything that I can think of that would prevent the system from seeing Windows. I am totally out of ideas and the system must be seeing the Windows partition and trying to load Windows, but fails. So I too am now focusing on Philo's original comment. That something in Windows boot files is missing, corrupt or something. There is no evidence for anything that I have heard so far that anything changed except the boot loader. And I am still thinking whatever is wrong, it is something really simple. The problem is, I am all out of simple ideas. As Jon did a beautiful job showing that all of my simple ideas just isn't it. :-( -- Bill Motion Computing LE1700 ('09 era) - Thunderbird v12 Centrino Core2 Duo L7400 1.5 GHz - 2GB RAM Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 SP2 |
#14
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
BillW50 wrote:
On 1/18/2014 3:41 PM, Paul wrote: Ben Myers wrote: "Jon Danniken" wrote in message ... Hi all, I have XP loaded onto my laptop, and currently at bootup all I get is a blinking cursor in the top-left of the screen. F8 doesn't do anything to mitigate this, it just sits there blinking, mocking me. This was a dual-boot system, using grub as the bootloader, and everything was working fine. In order to remove grub from the equation, I loaded the install CD and /fixboot and /fixmbr, but still, nothing but the blinking cursor. The boot.ini file looks to be fine, and ntldr is of the proper size. The XP partition was working fine the last time I booted into in a couple of weeks ago. At that time, I made a couple of minor changes in the registry, nothing major though. If that was the problem I should be getting an error message about the registry I would imagine. Any ideas on this? Start the recovery console and type the following: diskpart select disk 0 select partition 1 active exit exit Ben If Linux is still booting, you can also check which partition has the boot flag set, from there. I think Linux was killed off from booting when he did fixmbr and fixboot. Although later he repaired it and Linux still loads. A LiveCD will do it. You install Linux from a LiveCD, so it should still be lying in the pile of CDs. You can boot the LiveCD, and run commands from there. http://i42.tinypic.com/2m7sxmh.gif When I tried booting recovery console from my WinXP SP3 CD on that machine, the diskpart isn't the regular diskpart you get normally in Windows. It's just the one used for partition preparation before an install. I think other DVDs, like Vista/Win7/Win8 DVD, when booted to recovery console, they give the command line diskpart. I wasn't able to run C:\Windows\system32\diskpart.exe when booted to the recovery console from the WinXP CD. This is what it looks like, if I boot and repair with the Vista recovery CD (or the Vista installer DVD). http://i42.tinypic.com/2v29pj8.gif Paul |
#15
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Blinking cursor at failed boot
On 01/18/2014 01:41 PM, Paul wrote:
Ben Myers wrote: Start the recovery console and type the following: diskpart select disk 0 select partition 1 active exit exit Ben If Linux is still booting, you can also check which partition has the boot flag set, from there. GRUB doesn't use the boot flag and doesn't need it. While Windows does. The puzzling part would be, why would a boot flag "go away" ? What would have cleared it ? Thanks Paul, and Ben. Linux (fdisk -l) is indeed showing the WinXP partition as the boot partition (it has the asterisk in the Boot column). Jon |
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