Finding A Lost Partition

[colton.ancell]

I recently had major problems on my desktop computer running Windows XP Home Edition, SP2. In an effort to "start fresh", I pulled a system restore on my whole computer, with the intention of wiping out the old XP installation and putting on a fresh one. I THOUGHT I copied my important files to an external HD, but it turns out I'm missing nearly 6GB in music.

After I restored my system, I realized that I didn't in fact restore it, but I inadvertently created some kind of partition. The newer installation of XP is running on 19GB of HD space, while the total size of the disk is 71GB. So this tells me that the older installation is still there.

When I realized this, I also realized I was getting a boot menu at start up. So, to allay any confusion for the rest of the users of the computer, I deleted the option to boot the old installation, which has turned out to be my biggest mistake.

How do I fix my BOOT.INI file to recognize my older Windows XP installation again? I know it's there, I just can't figure out how to get to it. Please help! System specs below.


OS: Windows XP Home Edition 2002 SP2
CPU: Intel Dell Dimension Desktop 5100
Pentium 4 CPU 2.80 GHz
512 MB of RAM
71GB Hard Drive Space

[Devasis]

Boot.ini is a text file that tells Windows XP and earlier how to load and where each Windows OS is located. If more than one OS is installed, it prompts you to choose one each time your computer starts.

Follow these steps:

Enter the Recovery Console (instructions here).

Type type C:\boot.ini and also note that replace C: with the drive letter that Windows is installed on. There should be one of two results. If your boot file is OK, it will be shown. The screenshot shows an example of a healthy boot.ini file.

If your boot.ini file is corrupt, you should get a message like "The system cannot find the file specified." If your file is corrupt:
Type bootcfg /rebuild This command scans your hard disk for installations and asks you to add them to a new boot.ini file. It may take a little while, so be patient.
Choose to add the desired installations to the boot.ini file (you probably want all of them).
When prompted to "Enter Load Identifier" type the name of your OS. For example, "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition"

For "Enter OS Load Options," type /fastdetect and press Enter

Type exit to reboot yoru computer and see if it worked.

[Raiz]

If you want to deal with Boot.INI refer this Mastering Boot.ini guide. First learn fist how to do and then proceed. good luck