Help with recovery partiton

Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the contents of
the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail
version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it is illegal. By
doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no longer gives
access to the recovery option, partition 'D'

If I can set the boot back to standard I can then reinstall it to factory
default.

Many thanks

Jb

"Jb" wrote in message ...
Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the contents of the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it
is illegal. By doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no longer gives access to the recovery option,
partition 'D'

If I can set the boot back to standard I can then reinstall it to factory default.

Of course you realize that you will lose all data files if you do this. Make
sure to backup anything that you wish to keep.

If you had to press F10 to access the Compaq restore routine, then it's
likely that the restore routine was booted directly from the MBR code
and not the Windows loader code that's used to process boot.ini.

The XP-Pro install may have overwritten the MBR boot code as well. You
might have success booting into the Compaq restore partition by setting
the restore partition's boot flag in the partition table as active, and also
disabling XP's boot flag by zeroing it out.

Not hard to do, but the method depends on a number of factors. What media
are available for booting? Floppy, CD, USB. Is the HD SATA, and if so can it
be configured as a legacy IDE device in the BIOS so that a DOS boot will
see it?

There are a number of tools to change the "active" boot flag from within
Windows, but the catch is that you need to be able to change it back in case
the Compaq recovery software does not boot, and you no longer have
access to Windows.

Jb wrote:
Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the
contents of the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail
version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it is illegal.
By doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no
longer gives access to the recovery option, partition 'D'

If I can set the boot back to standard I can then reinstall it to
factory default.

Many thanks

Jb

Ouch. Something to check on: Did he delete all partitions and recreate
them when he did that, or did he just do an install? Just for GPs,
check if you can to be certain the D drive is actually there and
contains data. If it's hidden or anything, you might need to use Disk
Management to see if it's there. Also, there is sometimes also another,
non-lettered hidden partition that goes along with drive D if that's the
right letter. On a Dell MCE I was just fiddling with, it all lived on
drive X and one hidden partition right next to that. Easily visible in
Disk Management.
Control panel; administrative tasks; computer management; disk
management.

Hope you find someone with a like machine. Any chance you could ask
their tech support?

HTH

Twayne

"Jb" wrote in message
...
Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the contents of
the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail
version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it is illegal. By
doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no longer
gives access to the recovery option, partition 'D'

If I can set the boot back to standard I can then reinstall it to factory
default.

Many thanks

Jb

A question, if you look in Disk Management, is the D partition actually
still there?

"Twayne" wrote in message
...
Jb wrote:
Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the
contents of the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail
version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it is illegal.
By doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no
longer gives access to the recovery option, partition 'D'

If I can set the boot back to standard I can then reinstall it to
factory default.

Many thanks

Jb

Ouch. Something to check on: Did he delete all partitions and recreate
them when he did that, or did he just do an install? Just for GPs, check
if you can to be certain the D drive is actually there and contains data.
If it's hidden or anything, you might need to use Disk Management to see
if it's there. Also, there is sometimes also another, non-lettered hidden
partition that goes along with drive D if that's the right letter. On a
Dell MCE I was just fiddling with, it all lived on drive X and one hidden
partition right next to that. Easily visible in Disk Management.
Control panel; administrative tasks; computer management; disk management.

Hope you find someone with a like machine. Any chance you could ask their
tech support?

HTH

Twayne

Thanks for replies guys. The recovery partition is still there and
untouched, I went to Compaq 'live' support who said I have to buy a set of
disks but I'd like to exhaust the possibilities of recovering from the
partition before I do that, (10 days and £25).
like a lot of people i now realise i should have created a CD but i didn't.
I thought of REMing the C drive out in the boot cfg file but that would I'm
sure that would leave me dead in the water. I edited it to what I thought it
should be and the F10 option has reappeard but says the configuration is
wrong, not corrupt, just wrong. From this i assumed that in the 'proper'
windows installation there is something that points to the correct
parameters but damned if i can find out what they are.

thanks

Jb

"Jb" wrote in message ...

"Twayne" wrote in message ...
Jb wrote:
Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the
contents of the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail
version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it is illegal.
By doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no
longer gives access to the recovery option, partition 'D'

If I can set the boot back to standard I can then reinstall it to
factory default.


Ouch. Something to check on: Did he delete all partitions and recreate them when he did that, or did he just do an install?
Just for GPs, check if you can to be certain the D drive is actually there and contains data. If it's hidden or anything, you
might need to use Disk Management to see if it's there. Also, there is sometimes also another, non-lettered hidden partition
that goes along with drive D if that's the right letter. On a Dell MCE I was just fiddling with, it all lived on drive X and one
hidden partition right next to that. Easily visible in Disk Management.
Control panel; administrative tasks; computer management; disk management.

Hope you find someone with a like machine. Any chance you could ask their tech support?

Thanks for replies guys. The recovery partition is still there and untouched, I went to Compaq 'live' support who said I have to
buy a set of disks but I'd like to exhaust the possibilities of recovering from the partition before I do that, (10 days and £25).
like a lot of people i now realise i should have created a CD but i didn't. I thought of REMing the C drive out in the boot cfg
file but that would I'm sure that would leave me dead in the water. I edited it to what I thought it should be and the F10 option
has reappeard but says the configuration is wrong, not corrupt, just wrong. From this i assumed that in the 'proper' windows
installation there is something that points to the correct parameters but damned if i can find out what they are.

What do you mean exactly by the F10 option has reappeared? What was the
exact error message when you pressed F10?

Post the contents of your boot.ini file with the changes that you made.

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message
...
"Jb" wrote in message
...

"Twayne" wrote in message
...
Jb wrote:
Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the
contents of the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail
version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it is illegal.
By doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no
longer gives access to the recovery option, partition 'D'


Snip...
To answer Bills question

The F10 screen comes up on boot to give the option of booting to the
recovery partition, access to the BIOS and other boot options. The machine
booted straight to XP before I edited the boot.ini file


BOOT.INI :-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP
Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

e:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

the last line is my addition. It now tries to load but comes back with an
error of bad configuration.

"Jb" wrote in message ...

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message ...
"Jb" wrote in message ...

"Twayne" wrote in message ...
Jb wrote:
Can anyone with a compaq machine do me a kindness and post the
contents of the boot.ini file please.

No1 son decided to 'repair' my Compaq Pressario by installing a retail
version of XP Pro. It should have XP Home on it so now it is illegal.
By doing he has overwritten the boot.ini file so that using F10 no
longer gives access to the recovery option, partition 'D'


Snip...
To answer Bills question

The F10 screen comes up on boot to give the option of booting to the recovery partition, access to the BIOS and other boot
options. The machine booted straight to XP before I edited the boot.ini file

The Compaq recovery partition is not the same as the Window's recovery
console. As I said in my first post the Compaq recovery was likely loaded
by the code in the MBR (Master Boot Record), which is processed before
Windows has control.

A Windows install is very likely to overwrite the code in the MBR, in effect
removing the option to gain access to the Compaq recovery routine.

You might be able to boot directly to it by setting the partition active, but
this should be done outside of Windows, so that you can get back if need be.



BOOT.INI :-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

e:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

the last line is my addition. It now tries to load but comes back with an error of bad configuration.

Do you have the Windows recovery console installed to e:\CMDCONS\? If
not it will error. However, that's not the Compaq recovery routine.