won't boot

Had a power outage and now computer keeps cycling thru bios load up.
Tried XP cd to repair, it finds the xp installation and does it's thing but
when it restarts, I'm back to bios restarting over and over. Doesn't try to
start xp at all, or at least that I can see. (no error messages) Did a chkdsk
didn't show any major issues. Did a bootcfg, still nothing. Have not flashed
bios as it appears to load and I can get into the bios screen.
Any ideas?

"MHS Mom" wrote in message
...
Had a power outage and now computer keeps cycling thru bios load up.
Tried XP cd to repair, it finds the xp installation and does it's thing
but
when it restarts, I'm back to bios restarting over and over. Doesn't try
to
start xp at all, or at least that I can see. (no error messages) Did a
chkdsk
didn't show any major issues. Did a bootcfg, still nothing. Have not
flashed
bios as it appears to load and I can get into the bios screen.
Any ideas?

there's an quick and easy fix for this that's worked for me half a dozen
times or so. The problem can be that the page file corrupted with the
outage and the OS falls over the debris.

Attach the drive to another system, and from the root directory delete the
pagefile.sys file. Put the drive back, and restart. In some cases it's
necessary to restart twice.

HTH
-pk

Thanks for the response. I didn't see any posts with this issue, so wasn't
sure I'd get any suggestions.
Can I delete this file with Bart's PE or Knoppix rather than move drive? Or
will that have the proper affect?
Curious as to what pagefile.sys file does.

On Mar 5, 11:36*pm, MHS Mom wrote:
Had a power outage and now computer keeps cycling thru bios load up.
Tried XP cd to repair, it finds the xp installation and does it's thing but
when it restarts, I'm back to bios restarting over and over. *Doesn't try to
start xp at all, or at least that I can see. (no error messages) Did a chkdsk
didn't show any major issues. Did a bootcfg, still nothing. *Have not flashed
bios as it appears to load and I can get into the bios screen.
Any ideas?

How did you do a chkdsk and do a bootcfg if your system will not boot?

I don't think chkdsk distinguishes major and minor issues - what did
it report and/or fix? This would be the first thing to run after a
power interruption. If you want chkdsk to do anything you have to
give it some command line options.

You did a bootcfg and got nothing? What where you expecting to see?
If you want bootcfg to do anything (besides offer a list of help
options), you have to give it some command line options.

Is the CD you used a genuine bootable XP installation CD?

Eliminate or repair possible file system corruption from a power
failure, ungraceful shutdown or aborted restart.

You should first boot your PC into the XP Recovery Console using a
bootable XP installation CD or a bootable CD with the XP Recovery
Console on it. This is not the same as any Recovey or System CDs that
may have come with a store bought system.

For each of your hard disks, you should then run:

chkdsk /r

For example, from the Recovery Console prompt, enter:

chkdsk c: /r

You can create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD when no XP media is
available:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic276527.html

MHS Mom wrote:
Thanks for the response. I didn't see any posts with this issue, so wasn't
sure I'd get any suggestions.
Can I delete this file with Bart's PE or Knoppix rather than move drive? Or
will that have the proper affect?
Curious as to what pagefile.sys file does.

Yes, you should be able to delete the file with a PE disk. Or delete it
from the Recovery Console.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255205
How to Delete the Pagefile.sys File in Recovery Console

Pagefile.sys is the "swapfile", the term swapfile is not used on NT systems.

John

On Mar 6, 9:37*am, John John - MVP wrote:
MHS Mom wrote:
Thanks for the response. *I didn't see any posts with this issue, so wasn't
sure I'd get any suggestions.
Can I delete this file with Bart's PE or Knoppix rather than move drive? Or
will that have the proper affect?
Curious as to what pagefile.sys file does.

Yes, you should be able to delete the file with a PE disk. *Or delete it
from the Recovery Console.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255205
How to Delete the Pagefile.sys File in Recovery Console

Pagefile.sys is the "swapfile", the term swapfile is not used on NT systems.

John

I booted RC and don't seem to have a pagefile.sys, but do have other
hidden system files - like hiberfile.sys.

How do you remove the pagefile.sys from Recovery Console?

What am I missing...

Jose wrote:
On Mar 6, 9:37 am, John John - MVP wrote:
MHS Mom wrote:
Thanks for the response. I didn't see any posts with this issue, so wasn't
sure I'd get any suggestions.
Can I delete this file with Bart's PE or Knoppix rather than move drive? Or
will that have the proper affect?
Curious as to what pagefile.sys file does.
Yes, you should be able to delete the file with a PE disk. Or delete it
from the Recovery Console.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255205
How to Delete the Pagefile.sys File in Recovery Console

Pagefile.sys is the "swapfile", the term swapfile is not used on NT systems.

John

I booted RC and don't seem to have a pagefile.sys, but do have other
hidden system files - like hiberfile.sys.

How do you remove the pagefile.sys from Recovery Console?

What am I missing...

Read the article.

John

I have an actual XP CD, and booted from the cd drive. (to repair/ recovery
menu) Ran chkdsk /p, it showed some bad sectors and recovery of those. No
statement of unable to fix, so I assume it was good to go. Ran bootcfg
/rebuild. I didn't expect to see anything, but if boot.ini was the problem,
then it would boot after. As I said, that either wasn't the issue, or not
the only issue, because it still just does Bios load.
I'll try the pagefile.sys delete.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

MHS Mom wrote:
I have an actual XP CD, and booted from the cd drive. (to repair/ recovery
menu) Ran chkdsk /p, it showed some bad sectors and recovery of those. No
statement of unable to fix, so I assume it was good to go. Ran bootcfg
/rebuild. I didn't expect to see anything, but if boot.ini was the problem,
then it would boot after. As I said, that either wasn't the issue, or not
the only issue, because it still just does Bios load.
I'll try the pagefile.sys delete.



If the drive has bad sectors (even recoverable)

I don't think I'd trust it.

I'd not risk it.

Looks like time for a new HD and a new install


all the data from the old drive should still be OK
so it can be slaved and recovered

"MHS Mom" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the response. I didn't see any posts with this issue, so
wasn't
sure I'd get any suggestions.
Can I delete this file with Bart's PE or Knoppix rather than move drive?
Or
will that have the proper affect?
Curious as to what pagefile.sys file does.

Pagefile.sys is the WIndows swap file. It's in use by Windows any time it
is running, and has to be explicitly disabled to run without it.

As long as you do not boot with a disk that relies on the hard disk, yes you
can use a CD. A live Linux CD will also work. You just need to be able
to delete that file.

I find it faster to just detach the drive and use a USB adapter to my
laptop. this task usually takes me under 15 minutes, from opening the case
to closing it.

"philo" wrote in message
...
MHS Mom wrote:
I have an actual XP CD, and booted from the cd drive. (to repair/
recovery menu) Ran chkdsk /p, it showed some bad sectors and recovery of
those. No statement of unable to fix, so I assume it was good to go.
Ran bootcfg /rebuild. I didn't expect to see anything, but if boot.ini
was the problem, then it would boot after. As I said, that either
wasn't the issue, or not the only issue, because it still just does Bios
load.
I'll try the pagefile.sys delete.



If the drive has bad sectors (even recoverable)

I don't think I'd trust it.

I'd not risk it.

Looks like time for a new HD and a new install


all the data from the old drive should still be OK
so it can be slaved and recovered

While it's certainly a good opportunity to evaluate the backup status,
it's actually not that difficult to corrupt the pagefile - the contents of
which are temporary - and that corruption can prevent the OS from booting.
Deleting the file, which has to be done without the OS running, forces a
valid rebuild.

Brief power interruptions are an easy way to cause this, and don't mean that
the drive or the OS install are damaged.

HTH
-pk

Just to keep you all informed, since you offered help. I followed the
directions and deleted the pagefile. Still won't boot. (tried a couple times
and let it attempt to boot several times each time).
Since the Bios doesn't look like it finds anything to boot, I think it might
be the mbr.
What happens if I use fixmbr? I have recovered the files I need, so I
figure I've nothing to lose.

MHS Mom wrote:
Just to keep you all informed, since you offered help. I followed the
directions and deleted the pagefile. Still won't boot. (tried a couple times
and let it attempt to boot several times each time).
Since the Bios doesn't look like it finds anything to boot, I think it might
be the mbr.
What happens if I use fixmbr? I have recovered the files I need, so I
figure I've nothing to lose.

It's going to give you a scary message about the computer appearing to
have a non-standard or invalid master boot record, but this message is
given regardless of the state of the MBR so the warning is a bit
pointless, like issuing a tsunami or hurricane warning every day of the
year. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266745 for information about
this warning.

You can run both the fixmbr *and* the fixboot command and see if things
improve.

John